


Twice

by Deroska



Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Happy Ending, Shadow of Israphel, Yoglabs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2019-07-28 03:55:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16233716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deroska/pseuds/Deroska
Summary: A survival adventure stringing together SOI and Yoglabs, from the very beginning to the end(?).





	1. First night

«There we go! That’s a nice dwelling I’ve made myself here!”

A brick fell from the roof of the newly constructed house by the sea.

“More or less….”

Honeydew slumped against a tree, tired, exhausted and disappointed.

“God… who am I kidding…”

He’d left his home a decade ago, but he couldn’t help but reminisce what it used to be like, living in a community with riches to spare. Gold, diamonds, glorious banquets after a day of hard work and the traditional dancing, singing…

Here, outside, he was out of his element. He wasn’t accustomed to the ways of others, so he wandered, village after village, town after town, being displeased with everything and everyone he encountered. Having become a hermit with little to no knowledge of how to fend for himself he’d had dangerous encounters with near-death. A nomadic dwarf. Who’d ever heard of that?

He stood up and went inside, glancing at his possessions. He’d gathered some mushrooms, of which he luckily knew that they were edible, as a Druid had once taught him which to eat, after getting tired of rushing to his house once every week with an antidote for food poisoning.

In the furnace, some deliciously smelling cooked porkchop. Amazing. Splendid. Everything he needed after a day of tiring memories and building a shack.  
He took it out of the still burning fire with his gloved hands and put it on a carved wooden bowl, marveling at its texture. It was rare for him to be able to have this luxury nowadays. Hunting and gathering wasn’t a dwarf’s skill, they usually traded their jewels for food. Although his running had improved with so many years living in the wild, there was hardly anything he could do against his stubby legs and weight, except getting boots with higher heels and wishing the fat away. Which he didn’t. It didn’t bother him in any other aspect except when it came to hunting dinner.

Just before taking a bite, he remembered the apple he’d stolen from the witches’ tree as he passed by this morning. Now if it was cursed he wouldn’t know, but he thought of himself a strong warrior capable to survive any curse sent his way, despite experience telling him otherwise. So, he decided to additionally make an applesauce with the embers. As he split the apple in two with his axe, what sounded like thunder erupted from the skies.  
-Oh, so there was a curse on the apple.-  
He continued hacking at the apple as another loud sound rumbled away. He was beginning to get slightly scared of the apple now but if he didn’t put it to cook right at that instant his porkchop would get cold. 

Luckily, the sounds stopped when he put the apple pieces in the furnace. He stirred, waited, then poured the sauce on his porkchop, proud of his recipe. He licked his lips in anticipation, when an ear-deafening splash indicated something huge had crashed on the sea.

“Oh for fucks sake, it’s just an applesauce! Let me have at least some luxury—”

He dropped the bowl, swung open the door, ripping it from its frame, when he saw a huge wave coming right for him and his house.  
He ran back into the house, without thinking he grabbed the bowl with the porkchop and ran, opposite to the wave. As he ran he took a bite, before being engulfed in water; his porkchop now beyond saving.

Wet. Wet porkchop.  
He whirled back to look at his house.  
Ruins.  
And…  
A body on the beach.

“Oh my god! Are you alright there?”

No response. He circled the humanoid. Unknown textiles draped around its body, scratches here and there and one cut at its side that looked quite severe.  
A fellow dwarf perhaps? Too tall. A giant? Too tiny. Elf? No, it didn’t have any pointy ears.  
Honeydew looked on to where the big thing from the sky had fallen to. The clouds dispersed around it and some pieces of it on the water were on fire, so it was hard to miss. He knew humans got into weird troubling situations and built peculiar things, but he’d never heard of something that would fly that high; from where it must’ve fallen given by the grand impact it caused. Therefore, it wasn’t a human. And it had come from space.

Honeydew looked around, not knowing what to do. The tall, brown-haired individual at his feet didn’t look like it could be carried somewhere safe easily, but he had to. He couldn’t leave it alone, and he couldn’t stay here since it was beginning to be night, and everything was too wet to make a fire.

A cave would have to do. He hadn’t gone in one in ages, he’d tried that hard to fit into his surroundings. He remembered the one he’d seen before he settled by this little spot by the sea and shuddered. Sure, it was a cave, but for all he knew it could be a not-safe cave. And with this extra baggage he’d have much more difficulty fending off any beast that lurked in its shadows.

He gathered what was spared by the water: the bag of mushrooms, his self-carved wooden bowl, his worn axe, a canteen, flint and tinder, his spare clothes and a blanket.

He dragged his newfound companion through the mud as it was the easier way to advance. His strength was above average, but his stamina wasn’t, so he was out of breath by the time he reached the cave. He set the humanoid aside on the entrance and gulped harshly when he thought he saw shadows lurking about in the cave.

“no light…”

He scurried around the nearby forest for some sticks. It seemed the landing of the spaceship had stirred up the clouds above, he made it back to the cave just before it started raining.

He grabbed his spare trousers, ripped them apart and made a knot with the textile scraps around one end of the sticks to make torches. He lit one of them with his flint and tinder, grabbed his axe and ventured into the cave.  
He heard bats, he heard dripping water, he heard—

“AAAAAAAAAH”

Honeydew jolted in panic and dropped the torches. He faced the entrance to run not knowing the source of the yelling, and then he saw him.

The one who’d yelled.

“p… pal?....hello..?”  
“a…ah…” 

The humanoid, the alien, the Spaceman had just noticed his wound at his side.

“don’t worry, don’t worry, stay there, I’ll take care of it for you”

The wild look on the spaceman’s face and his flinching away from Honeydew made him realize he hadn’t dropped his axe yet.

“no no no I’m friendly, I’m a friend.”

Honeydew gestured wildly: a hug, a heart, a handshake.

The spaceman calmed down and covered his hurting side with his hand. His face scrunched up in pain, and he let out a shaky sigh.  
Honeydew slowly made his way past him while watching him, gathering his spare linen shirt from the ground, also ripping it apart in stripes. He turned around and showed them to the spaceman, with an expectant glint in his eyes.

Hesitatingly, the spaceman removed his hand from his side, and lifted his shirt, sticky with blood, to let the dwarf bandage him. Honeydew remained focused, but still noticed the spaceman trembling and breathing heavily. Whatever had pierced him wasn’t on his body, but that made the bleeding all the heavier.  
The proper way of bandaging would be using washed, or better, boiled bandages but he couldn’t do any of those things. He hoped the spaceman’s wounds would heal quickly without any problems.

-It must be very scary for him. Far away from his home…-

After bandaging and cleaning the spaceman’s wounds he grabbed the leftover torches and stuck them between rocks in the cave, lighting up the place. The number of torches weren’t enough to light all of it, he desperately hoped the deeper unlit passage of the cave wouldn’t lead anywhere dangerous.

Honeydew took off his two-horned helmet, washed it a bit with the water of the canteen and stuck it on the ground outside in the rain to fill it up with drinkable water. He scratched at his now visible ginger locks, trying to fix the ones sticking out. His hair was a bit longer than what he was used to, though not quite yet to tie back.

As he went to get the blanket to hang up to dry, with the adrenaline rush having passed, a rush of nostalgia took its place by looking at the cave. It was like his eyes remembered how they were only used in dim lights and darkness for years and years. Only inside, never outside…

He then looked at the spaceman. He seemed hopeless, staring off to someplace in front of him. Out of his element, probably not accustomed to any of earth’s ways, if he really was a spaceman. 

Honeydew remembered back to his first days outside. He thought how difficult it would’ve been if it weren’t for the few people that had helped him along the way. He decided, he’d be that person for the spaceman. He’d help him.

“You’ll be my travel-companion, spaceman! I’m Honeydew!”

Honeydew’s now proclaimed travel-companion looked at him, dumbfounded.

“Oh right… you can’t understand anything…”

An uncomfortable silence loomed over them. A growl emanating from Honeydew’s tummy reminded him his mealtime had been interrupted.

“I guess some mushrooms will do…”  
Honeydew patted his belly at the spaceman to signalize and walked over to the bag he’d brought. The sea salt had seasoned them at least.

“here, have a go, friend”

He put a mushroom on a stick on the spaceman’s hand after preparing his own and walked him over to one of the torches on the ground. The spaceman limped a little, so he supported him. Honeydew held the mushroom up to the flame and gestured the other man to do the same. The flame’s glow revealed the blue tone of the spaceman’s eyes and many more of his features the rainy weather and darkness of the cave hadn’t yet uncovered. The strange man’s beard was perfectly trimmed, having seen far better care than Honeydew’s it seemed, despite him just having crash-landed on earth.  
Looking past him as he thought it was rude to stare, Honeydew gazed outside to his helmet, seeing it was filled up to the brim with water.  
Honeydew munched at the mushroom as he walked towards the helmet. He unstuck it from the ground and brought it back to where the spaceman and the torch were.

“look at this! Two glasses!”

He removed one of the horns of the helmet, for a second not understanding that he’d spilled the entire capacity of water of the helmet right into the torch.  
The spaceman snorted, then started laughing wholeheartedly. Honeydew did all the same.

The rain cleared, and all they were left with were the twinkling moon and stars.

“welp, goodnight lad, fun meeting ya”

The spaceman’s blue eyes pierced the darkness of the cave, lost, not knowing what to look at. Honeydew interpreted it as him not knowing what to do.

“you sleep. Ya dumb bastard.”

Honeydew wondered how he’d explain sleeping. He sighed and took the blanket from the place he’d left it to dry. It was a bit damp but kept warm.  
Honeydew seated himself aside the spaceman and draped the blanket over them both. Honeydew turned to his side and closed his eyes. Just as he felt himself drift away to sleep, he felt something grabbing at his wrist.

“what?”

The spaceman looked at him relieved by his reaction. He was checking his pulse.

“do you…. Do you not sleep?”

Silence.

“Look… we’ll do it like this”

Honeydew took the spaceman’s hand and placed them again on his wrist, laid down and closed his eyes. It was weird, having to sleep under the same blanket with a total stranger while holding hands, but god knew he would’ve held hands with anybody the first night outside. And in this case, it was necessary even.

“just… sleep. Like this”

The spaceman seemed to understand the gesture of reassurance as he didn’t bother him for the rest of the night.

 

Honeydew woke up to the spaceman sleeping. 

“oh so you did need sleep now did you?”

By the sound of his voice the spaceman shot up, panting heavily.

“AGH! Don’t scare me like that!”

The spaceman furrowed his brows, looking around like he’s seeing everything for the first time again. Honeydew concluded he mustn’t have needed to sleep back home. 

-Some powerful magic perhaps?-

“Well, now that you’re awake, I can teach you some things.”  
Honeydew sat up and faced his companion.

“me. H-o-n-e-y-d-e-w”  
He pointed at himself and watched the spaceman sit up as well, grimacing.

“honee...”

“no no no you have to say the whole thing. Honeydew. Or else it’s something entirely different”

“honey dieu”

“Perfect. Fantastic. you got it pal!”  
Honeydew pointed at him now.

“What’s your name?”

“Xephos.”  
How easily the name came from his lips and how he said it with pride seemed to boost Xephos’ confidence.

“Xephos. Good.”

Honeydew looked outside at the grass, the trees, the flowers, and wondered where he could begin. Should he describe Earth? Should he name his tools? Should he tell his story and encourage the man to do the same or…  
Honeydew sighed. He wouldn’t be a great teacher. He already felt impatient and overwhelmed.  
When he looked back he was met with the eyes of an expectant Xephos patting at the surface of the cave.

“ah! You want to know how Earth’s called! E-a-r-t-h”

“…earth”

“now tell me… what’s up there?”

“Lask”

“oh really? Sounds a lot like Alaska…”

Honeydew remembered how much work was left to do that day and stood up. Feeding himself was one thing but now he’d have to get a meal for two. They’d eaten up all the mushrooms last night. He lacked tools, he lacked a proper bed, he wondered how he’d survived this long with such little number of belongings.

While pacing around, Honeydew noticed the second entrance of the cave, where the torches hadn’t reached. He slowly walked towards it, feeling Xephos’ gaze on his back. 

“A waterfall! And a river… A pond too… this is good. We can get our water from here”

“Waterfall… and river…”  
Xephos repeated fragments of what he said, struggling and fumbling through words but still catching some. Honeydew nodded at him encouragingly.  
“That’s right, you repeat what I say… I’ll teach you as we go along, I don’t think I’m the type to teach but… this should work…”

Although water was more than good news, another entrance meant that the cave let wind in through both, making the nights cold. Following the light coming from the entrance, he looked back to the cave. It certainly looked cosier with light, but their torches had run out.

“Oh! Look at what’s over there!”  
Honeydew pointed at a patch of darker stone in the cave.

“Coal! That’ll last longer”

“Coal!”

They didn’t have anything to gather the coal with, so he began picking up the bits that laid about in the cave. Xephos joined in, as best as he could with his limp. Honeydew had considered bringing him along to get more sticks for the torches, but it was probably for the best to let him rest a couple of days.  
After assuring Xephos many times he wouldn’t leave for long, he went to get the sticks.  
He tried to stay in Xephos’ line of sight to not worry him but finding dry sticks in the vicinity of the cave wasn’t an easy task. Searching, he noticed a flower under a tree, the petals gently touched by sunlight. As he looked up, the sunrays that had made its way to the poppy greeted him, between the leaves.  
Ease.

“sticks. And a flower.”  
Honeydew held both things up as he said their names respectively and Xephos answered with repeating the words.

“good boy.”  
Honeydew chuckled and put the poppy on Xephos’ head, while moving onto affixing the coal to the sticks.  
Xephos shook it off his hair and turned to Honeydew, looking at him questioningly. Honeydew thought he’d want something to work on while he fixed the torches, so before continuing with his doing he stood up, grabbed Xephos by the arm and lead him to the waterfall and river by the second entrance of the cave.

“Here. You’re still dirty from me dragging you around yesterday.”  
He demonstrated with his glove that had gotten dirt and coal on it, scrubbing at it and showing how the water made the uncleanliness dissolve, becoming one with the river.  
Xephos carefully took off his shirt, revealing his wounds and bandages. No muscle, no fat. Honeydew’s opposite in build, he noticed. Honeydew left him to it and returned to his work in the cave.

“Come back after you’re done, friend!”

Having someone else to talk to was different. Even if they couldn’t properly communicate well yet, Honeydew felt he could understand him. He’d been through something similar, after all. Seeing himself in Xephos, made his empathy, his fondness of him grow stronger. Although he’d survived alone until now, he was sure two were better than one. Or at least, with Xephos he liked to believe it was true.

Torches done, no breakfast. But he wouldn’t let themselves skip lunchtime as well. Just as he was getting ready to leave, Xephos came in all wet from washing up. Honeydew would’ve offered him a towel to dry up with but all he had to offer was the sun. 

“come… sit here… I’ll go get some food”

He put the blanket down in front of the cave and seated Xephos on it. Xephos looked around, then laid down. His head was protected by the shadow of a tree, his body out to dry in the sun. 

Honeydew gathered a few mushrooms. Without noticing, he’d ended up on the witches’ doorstep again. He took two apples. If the curse of the apple meant he’d get a friend each time he ate one, he didn’t mind. In fact, it was desirable. 

“Xephos! Look! I brought lunch!”

Xephos waved back.

“Honeydew!”

“eight mushrooms …and two apples”

“ah… mushroom and apple”

Xephos took one of the apples and mustered it. The apple’s red matched his red suit.


	2. Past selves

Night came. Xephos settled under the blanket, leaving room for Honeydew. 

“you go on ahead. I’m working on something.”  
Honeydew raised his arms, one with a piece of carved wood, and the other with a sharp stone. Xephos answered with a worried look.

“Don’t worry, I’ll go to sleep soon”

It would take ages to carve a bowl for Xephos with a stone, but he was willing to go through that trouble. They barely had anything, and he thought a gift would be appropriate to fully seal their friendship. The pile of wood from the tree he’d just chopped down lied beside him, what he’d taken for the bowl was a little piece of that pile. He was hungry, his hands were sore, and some splinters got through his glove, but he managed to have the bowl finished shortly before dawn. As a finishing touch, he wrote Xephos’ name on it, or how he thought it was written given by the way Xephos pronounced it.

He shivered. With all his concentration on the bowl he hadn’t noticed how cold it was. He took the wood dust and put it in the bag he’d used for gathering mushrooms. It’d be useful for starting a fire when necessary.

As he sluggishly walked over to the blanket, he noticed Xephos’ bandages. Dirty with dried blood. He’d have to change them somehow. He looked at the bandage on Xephos’ leg, noticing it had barely any blood on it. Slowly to not wake him up, he took it off, finding the wound had already mostly healed. Seeing it was not necessary, he took the bandage and walked outside, washing it off in the waterfall, then hanging it up by some rocks in the cave. In the morning, he could swap the bandages. Off he went, to sleep.

 

“atchoo!”

Honeydew’s first thought when he woke up was: worry. Worry that they’d starve, worry that what he heard was Xephos getting sick, and worry that he could’ve prevented both things if he’d hunted yesterday and closed off both ends of the cave.

Honeydew shot up and found Xephos, sneezing at the wooden dust in the bag, no signs of sickness. Relief.

“c’mere Xephos”

Xephos stopped rummaging their belongings and walked over to where Honeydew was. Honeydew took the now dry bandage off the rock he’d left it on yesterday and pointed at Xephos’ wound at his side.

“your bandages”

Xephos carefully lifted his shirt to take the bandaging off, flinching at the end as it stuck to his scabs. 

“careful, careful”

Once it was off, Honeydew began bandaging Xephos but Xephos took over. Mistrust perhaps? He looked at Xephos, who answered silently with an apologetic smile.  
-Ah. He didn’t want to be too dependent.-

While Xephos finished, Honeydew thought of the plan for that day. Sealing off the entrances with the materials left on the beach would be more than helpful. Bricks, clay, boards and stones, those were the materials he’d worked with for his house. The bricks and door he’d taken from ruins nearby, the clay from the beach as well as the rocks, and the little couple of boards he’d been carrying around ever since he left the last city. If they were lucky, materials of the shipwreck would be on the coast as well.

“come on, follow me, Xephos!”

Although Xephos’ wounds weren’t fully healed, for this mission he had no other choice but to bring him along. The materials were too heavy and the quantities too large to carry back by himself.

While they walked, Honeydew named the things around them. The sky, the trees, the grass, passing birds and mountains. Xephos learnt many new words and seemed proud of his progress. But suddenly, he stopped in his tracks.  
Xephos ran the last stretch to the beach, apparently having recognized some of the bits and pieces of his ship in the distance.

“this is where I found you….”

Honeydew looked at Xephos, not knowing how to help. Xephos walked in circles, walked to the panels, the former roof, the former walls, the former floor of his ship, exasperated. He smiled, looking desperate and like he was about to cry.

“Xephos…”

Then, he noticed the chunks floating in the sea. He stared at them and slowly sat down.

Honeydew decided he’d better leave him alone for now. They came here to get materials and so he would. He picked up boards, tying them up with string he’d forgotten to pick up after the flood. In the furnace, he found a pan. He’d take that as well. A splashing sound interrupted his work.

“XEPHOS!”

Honeydew ran to the sea, then jumped into the water to go after Xephos, who had swum out, in the direction of the floating spaceship pieces. Worried that Xephos wouldn’t be capable to swim, and that he’d do something reckless, he swam and swam. His wounds would open again, he would drown, he would….  
Honeydew ran out of breath and looked on to where Xephos was, far, far ahead. He’d gotten on one of the ship pieces. But Honeydew, if he didn’t get back…

“Oh bugger.”  
He felt himself lose strength, the sluggishness of a sleepless night catching up to him. He had been reckless himself.

“Honeydew!”

He saw Xephos paddling at him with the floating piece, then getting off and putting it between them. Honeydew tried to get on it, but he was far too exhausted. He flopped his arms on top of it, struggling to grasp at its smooth surface. Xephos took his hands from the other side, pulled, then before he knew, he was on the board.

“how… ? how did you do that?”

Xephos got on the board himself and smiled at him proudly. 

“don’t worry”

Honeydew giggled happily as he realized.

“you understood me! You learnt how to say it! And I’ve only said it twice…you cheeky bastard, learning so quickly!

Xephos chuckled, obviously delighted of his success.

They paddled ashore, and once they reached the coast they dragged the board to the beach. Puzzled, Honeydew stared at it. A single round window was etched in the middle, with something see-through that wasn’t common glass. Its surface looked like metal, but it floated. He didn’t cut himself at the edges when he got on it, nor when he dragged it to the beach. He decided, this would be the perfect transport for materials.  
He put bricks, clay, the door, the dismantled brick furnace, small wooden boards, the pan and a couple of stones on the board. Xephos joined in, and they had the board covered with materials in no time.

“Xephos! go over to that side”

Honeydew pointed to the side across from him, and when Xephos positioned himself, he lifted his side of the board. Xephos understood and did the same. It was heavy, but they’d be able to carry it back, he thought.

They made it, taking only a couple of breaks. Honeydew also noticed, that Xephos’ hands started trembling at the end. He didn’t look like he was used to carrying around heavy stuff. In fact, his smooth pale skin would even suggest he never did anything at all.

Honeydew took the bricks and started working on the base of the wall. Brick after brick, with clay in between. Once the bricks ran out, he used stones. Xephos watched carefully at first, then began working as well on the other side.

“Shit, it’s getting dark and we haven’t even had anything to eat yet.”

Honeydew went inside and grabbed his bag and his axe. Before he left, he emptied the bag of the wooden dust in the middle of the cave, surrounding it by some of the rocks they’d brought from the beach. He lit the dust with his flint and tinder and put two logs on top for a fire to start. The coal torches that were still in the cave, he put outside to signalize the entrance. They would be able to stay lit until he came back, he supposed.

“I’ll be back soon, just keep working on that. I’ll get us some food, okay? Apple and mushrooms. Maybe something else too”

“apple and mushrooms.”

Honeydew headed out. Walking through the forest, he spotted a bird’s nest in one of the trees. Climbing with difficulties, once he reached the nest he took all eggs he could in his bag, before tumbling to the ground.

“augh…. hurts…”

Luckily the eggs were safe. He looked up from where he fell and there was the old Witch’s house again.

“four apples today, nobody’ll mind I assume?”

He looked at the faintly glowing house, not sure if the witch was home. Not waiting until somebody casted a spell upon him, he quickly climbed the fence, grabbing at the ripe apples. One, two, three, four. 

“can I have a little more?”

He went in for a fifth, but the fence gave out under his weight and he leaned backwards, falling on his ass again.

“Dammit...”  
He hoped the witch wouldn’t notice the bent fence. 

On his way back, he gathered what little mushrooms were left. He’d taken all edible ones in their vicinity, he’d have to think of getting food from another source.  
The sky darkened, and he got back just before everything became pitch black.

“I’m back, Xephos”

“ah… Honeydew…”

Xephos looked sheepishly at him. At his side, one bit of their work had collapsed, and clay stained his clothes.

“Don’t worry pal, everyone makes mistakes…”  
Honeydew took the door they’d brought from the beach.

“In fact, we needed a door right here!”  
He put the door in the gap, fixing the frame with the clay surrounding it, then patted at Xephos' shoulder.

“come on, let’s get inside.”

The stars came forth, and Honeydew used the dim light to rinse off the sweat outside by the waterfall. When he came back, he found Xephos seated on their blanket, looking longingly at the sky. He sat down, facing him.

“I’m sorry about what happened to your ship…”

Xephos didn’t look back to him.

“You could say something similar happened to me…”

Honeydew looked at the ashes and bits of charcoal from the fire that had died down not too long ago. On top of them, he lit a new log, but not before taking a piece of charcoal.

“Look. Xephos.”

Xephos turned to him.

With the charcoal he sketched a circle of stickmen, surrounded by food and jewels.

“I used to be one of them…”

He pointed at one stickman, then wiped out all the others with his glove, along with the food and jewels. He figured that would be clear enough for him to understand.  
Xephos stared at the drawing sadly, his eyes glistening. Then, approaching awkwardly, he patted a bit at Honeydew’s shoulder.  
Honeydew erupted in laughter at the gesture and hugged him, squeezing him tight. Shutting his eyes, he noticed his eyes were a bit wet as well.

“that’s how you do it right! No half-assing here!”

“ooff”  
Xephos chuckled, and Honeydew let him go.

“oh god, I didn’t squeeze your wound now did I…”  
“don’t worry…”  
“I’m sorry if I did...”

Honeydew pointed at Xephos’ wound, and Xephos reluctantly pulled up his shirt.

“it’s... still bleeding… it was the swim wasn’t it…See? this is why I didn’t want you to swim…the salt water… it must’ve hurt!”

Xephos covered his wound, while Honeydew went looking for the bandages they’d swapped in the morning. Xephos stopped him and grabbed the bandages, going outside himself to wash them.

Honeydew sank to the ground, only now noticing his exhaustion again. While he waited, he found the bowl he’d had made for Xephos. He’d totally forgotten from all the work that day…

Honeydew took the bag with goodies he’d brought and fried the small bird eggs with the mushrooms and two apples over the fire. It smelled as delicious as such a mixture could. He served one half on his bowl, and the other half on the new bowl. When Xephos came back from what he saw had been a full body shower aside from washing the bandage, Honeydew held the bowl to him.

“Xephos. Let’s eat.”

Xephos looked at the new bowl in surprise.

“a gift for you… since you’re officially my travel-buddy now”

Xephos sat down, marvelling at the bowl, rubbing at the smooth sides Honeydew had carved. Xephos smiled at him, not knowing how to say thank you.

“that’s ok pal, I understand. You’re welcome”

Then Xephos came across his own name, carved on the side.

“that’s your name! X-E-P-H-O-S”

Xephos curiously went through the carving again, whispering each letter as he went by them with his finger. Honeydew thought, an alphabet might be useful if he wanted to teach him how to write too. But without anything to write with, it seemed useless.

“I’ll teach you sometime. For now, you just have to know that the bowl there’s yours”

They ate the scrambled eggs and topped the meal off with the remaining two apples. That had been the biggest meal they’d had together, but they were still hungry, having had only a meal a day. Honeydew decided, one day they would get to have to be a banquet. With cakes, bread, roasted chicken and pig heads. But they still were far away from such a commodity.

The fire that illuminated their home produced considerable amounts of smoke, and although that wasn’t a problem yet since the cave was still open and the wind blew it away, he’d have to think of a chimney he could build to make it work when they finished closing off both ends of the cave. He sighed, thinking about the amounts of work lying ahead of them to be able to live in a safe, stable environment.

Xephos pointing at the eggshells beside him took Honeydew from his thoughts.

“ah… those are eggs. If you want to ask how something is called, say ‘what’s this?’.”

Honeydew demonstrated by patting at the cave, a word he knew that Xephos had already learnt. 

“earth.”  
“correct! Now what’s this?”  
Honeydew pointed at Xephos’ new bowl.

“uhh…what’s this…”  
“it’s a bowl! There you go, that’ll help you”  
Xephos hummed, satisfied. 

Honeydew settled under the blanket, ready to drift off to sleep.

“well go on then, we don’t have a second blanket yet now do we?”

Xephos put the blanket over himself too, and they slept soundly. Or as well as they could, on the hard surface of a cold cave, their clothes still wet from having showered in the evening.

 

“Honeydew!”

“wh..wha?”

“Honeydew!!”

When Xephos tried dragging Honeydew up, surprised by his weight, he fell on him. Honeydew snickered and Xephos moved away rapidly, looking embarrassed.

“alright alright I’m up. What is it?”  
Xephos pulled at his arm this time, and Honeydew let himself be guided by Xephos. They walked up the mountain their cave was situated in.

“when did you have time to explore this much?”  
Xephos kept dragging him along, and Honeydew eventually recognized the ruins he’d taken the door, furnace and bricks from.

“is this what you’re trying to show me? The ruins? I’ve already seen them! Although I guess we could use some more materials from here….”  
Xephos sat on the ground and began scraping at a piece of wood on the floor.

“this is new…”  
Xephos pulled at a clink and the trap door was opened.

“oh no.”  
“what’s this?”  
“an ancient mine”

Of course there was a creepy ancient mine here. The ruins, the tree stumps with axe marks, their cave having signs of being dug out in some places, it all boiled down to the fact that somebody’d attempted their luck at mining in the dark passages of the earth. Honeydew knew better, it could become extremely dangerous quick, but he couldn’t change the fact that it was in his blood. 

He glanced at Xephos. They couldn’t do this. If Xephos was in danger, he wouldn’t be able to communicate it properly. Sure, he could call after him, but he wouldn’t know what exactly was bothering him. They didn’t have any tools to mine anything either. The creepy mine would have to wait.

“Come on Xephos, let’s go back…”

Seeing Xephos wasn’t following, he looked back at him, and found him digging up a handle. A handle of…a blade.  
Xephos pulled it out of the earth. The sword was rusty, though it still shone partly. Xephos handed it to Honeydew to look at. The grip was wooden and carved without any spectacular decorations but that’s what made it comfortable to hold. He carefully ran his gloved hands along the edge of the sword. It could still cut. It was too big for him, but it was of an adequate size for Xephos.

“it’s yours. A sword. You found it”

Xephos took the sword, as if it had always belonged to him. He stuck it proudly into the air, striking a pose.

“you go spaceman Xephos! Conquer the earth!”

Xephos laughed, Honeydew joining him. They walked back, forgetting the cave, as they had found something more of use to them at that moment.

When they came back, they found a fox snooping around the cave.

“shoo! Shoo! Xephos! Chase it away with your sword!”  
“aah!”

Xephos waved the sword near the fox in a manner that gave away that he’d never in his life held a sword before. Meaning: it looked ridiculous. Xephos kept trying but the fox didn’t budge.

Honeydew watched the scene laughing. He would’ve let this spectacle go on forever if he could, but he didn’t really want a fox in the house. He picked up his axe with both hands and swung once with force, and the fox was gone. Xephos looked on in admiration, and Honeydew couldn’t help but smile proudly. Then he realized what it meant.

“I have to teach you everything don’t I?”


	3. Science

“Hold it. Like this. Grip the sword tight, stand your ground, and move swiftly, with force.”  
Honeydew demonstrated with his axe, and encouraged Xephos to do the same. Xephos’ swing was weak and badly controlled. The sword was too heavy for him.

“hmm… seems like you’ll need a bit of muscle before you can truly learn…”  
Honeydew squished at Xephos upper arm, and Xephos let the sword sink, shaking his head.

“Don’t worry! It’ll take some time, but I’m sure it’ll work. This is just uh, one of many things you have to learn as we go along”

Xephos sat down, looking frustrated.

“Look. If you’re in danger, it’s fine, you can just leg it. Run. And call me. I’ll take care of it. Okay?”  
Honeydew did as if he’d seen something scary, then turned to run in an exaggerated manner, while calling “Honeydew!” in a singsong-y way. Xephos snorted and got up from the floor.

“okay.”

Honeydew and Xephos walked back to the beach, as they hadn’t carried everything back home yet. They found a few more spaceship pieces: a turbine, another three floaty metal-walls, two with windows and one without, and some weird sort of machinery with colourful threads hanging off from it. Honeydew couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Xephos did, as he looked at it seemingly recognizing each part of it, and how it probably used to look like. He brought it with him to the cave.

As they walked back, Honeydew spotted a familiar looking plant in the bushes. He thought he’d seen it in the last city he’d been in.

“Xephos! Stop for a while.”  
Xephos looked at where Honeydew headed to and asked what it was. But Honeydew couldn’t answer, not at least until he’d dug it out. As he did, Xephos walked to him, curiously looking at his doing.

“Potatoes! It’s a potato plant Xeph!”  
Honeydew found two, three, four potatoes, two too tiny to eat. He figured, a little farm could be started with the little ones, while for today they could feast on the bigger two. He put them on the boards they were carrying, and they continued walking back to their base.

“A farm… do you know what this means? Food! Perhaps a lot of food if we’re lucky…We’re not so far away as we thought from getting ourselves a banquet, friend!”  
Honeydew knew only the basics of farming, but he was hopeful. Having a farm would secure them a food supply for however long they wanted if they did it right. Drying vegetables would certainly cover their supply for winter. Xephos’ voice interrupted his thoughts.

“Honeydew… friend.”  
Honeydew noticed he hadn’t heard Xephos say that word yet. Seeing him pick it up, and probably remember the meaning from when they first met, when he tried to explain it, warmed his heart.

Xephos held up one of the boards with windows to the brick foundation they’d laid out. It fit the gap perfectly, but they’d run out of clay to affix it with.

“sounds like a good plan Xeph!”

Honeydew wedged it between the cave wall, the door frame and the clay. Momentarily that would have to suffice. There were still holes the wind came in through, but they were much better shielded. He did the same on the other side of the door, this time with the board without a window, as he’d leave the second one for the back.

They’d ran out of logs, and the furnace hadn’t been reassembled yet. For that, he’d need clay as well. Xephos was off changing his bandages again, so in the meantime, he went back to the beach, the axe in his hands, the bag on his back.

“I don’t remember the way being this long…”  
Honeydew walked and walked, the sun came down. On his way, he stopped to chop down a tree, leaving the logs on the ground to pick up on his way back. Having reached the beach, he went to the spot he’d gotten the clay from and found nothing.

“Bollocks…”

He searched around, finding only little patches of clay on the ground. He dug all of them out, gathering a small pile of clay. Not yet enough. Then he saw some in the water.  
He put the bag and his helmet aside, and sank to the bottom, digging the clay out. It was difficult, as he was short and already at a low water level he had to struggle to go to the surface to catch air. The water darkened with the earth being moved about, and his eyes hurt from the saltwater. He stood up, coughing and gasping for air, then saw a light.

“AAH!”

He jumped, then went back down into the water. Whoever it was or whatever it was that had moved by the light, he had to remain wary. Giving out his location could potentially be dangerous, pirates, thieves, anything could get them, with Xephos being unable to defend himself and he himself being starved and exhausted from work.   
He peeked out of the water. A carriage. It was passing by, not too far away from the cave.  
Honeydew panicked. He hoped Xephos wouldn’t do anything to make his presence known. He tried to calm himself by thinking about how they didn’t have lights in their cave any longer, having ran out of logs. 

-They won’t be able to see us, right? Right…?-

He asked himself why a carriage would be here. The ruins didn’t have any signs of having been used as of late, and the cave was empty when they arrived.  
Then he realized, as he saw a small piece of metal swimming about in the water.

The crash.

The people in the carriage were probably trying to figure out what had happened. Him and Xephos had gotten rid of most of the evidence of the crash, but as the little metal piece signalized already, not all. And what they’d gotten rid of, they hadn’t really, they’d just repurposed it.

Xephos would most certainly stick out. His clothes and wounds would give him away as a passenger of the spaceship, no doubt. There was nothing like him on earth. Sure, he could probably pass as a human, but he knew the moment he’d met him something was off. Maybe it was his skin, maybe it was his hair or manners, he wasn’t sure, but he could tell. He was not of this world.

Honeydew thought of the tree he’d just chopped down. And the clay he’d gathered and left beside his helmet and the bag. It would all signalize somebody’d been through here not too long ago.

Voices. They quietened. He searched for the light where he’d seen it last, and found it gone.

Assuming it was safe, he grabbed the clay, stuffed it in his bag, put his helmet on and ran. On his way he grabbed the logs. Getting near the cave, his steps softened, afraid to make any noise.  
He went in through the door, breathing heavily. Inside, he found Xephos, staring at him with surprise and fear.

“shh shh ! it’s me! Don’t worry!”  
“friend…”

Xephos put his hand on Honeydew’s shoulder, as without light he couldn’t see much. He seemed to see worse than Honeydew, but that was no surprise. Nobody could see better in the dark than a dwarf. Honeydew patted at Xephos’ hand comfortingly. 

“We’ll have light in no time!”

Honeydew went looking for his flint and tinder. He put a little piece of wood down at the side with the waterfall and lit it. The smoke could get out of the entrance they hadn’t covered fully yet, and the people searching about on the other side wouldn’t see the fire. 

Honeydew assembled the furnace with the help of Xephos. Honeydew shoved the still burning log into it with his axe, and put some more in.  
Honeydew went to look for the potatoes to cook. He put the two of them near the fire and waited.

“Honeydew… what’s this…”  
“Let’s see… a furnace, fire, two baked potatoes, which is food, if you remember…. The cave, us friends, or me and you, the darkness…”

Xephos interrupted him, pointing at the lights outside.

“ah… I don’t know… They’re people”

Xephos grabbed his sword. Honeydew understood it as a question if they were dangerous or not.  
“I don’t know if they’re dangerous, Xephos. They’re just looking around for now.”  
Honeydew pointed outside, then at his eyes, then at the area around them. Xephos nodded.

The potatoes were done. Xephos grabbed at them and flinched when he found them piping hot.

“did you burn yourself?”  
Honeydew took Xephos’ hand and looked at it. His fingers were slightly red.

“C'mere…”  
He took Xephos to the waterfall and put his hand in the water. Xephos shuddered, relieved. They looked to the sky, covered in clouds. It seemed the people searching for Xephos and his spaceship had retreated because of the storm that was brewing above.

They went back inside, finding the potatoes a bit burned.

“oh… well, doesn’t matter. Still edible.”  
Honeydew took them with his gloved hands and put them in their respective bowls. They burned their mouths a couple of times, because of their impatience and overwhelming hunger. Honeydew hadn’t taken any apples from the apple tree that day, so they had even less food than usual. On the other hand though, potatoes filled up their stomachs better than mushrooms did.

Xephos took the blanket and placed it near the furnace. Honeydew laid beside him. It began to rain. The sound of droplets splashing on the ground seemed at the same time soothing and threatening, as a flood could cause their whole work to be destroyed. Much like what happened to Honeydew, the day he’d met Xephos.

“Goodnight Xephos”  
“Goodnight Honeydew?”  
“that’s right”

 

Honeydew woke up with the feeling of needing a cushion and a proper bed. He didn’t care if he’d have to share it with Xephos again, but he was sick of sleeping on the floor. Although there were two of them and the furnace burnt for a while, he felt nothing but cold all night.

Xephos still slept. Honeydew went outside, looking for tall grass he could put as insulation from the cold hard floor. Instead he found one of the searchmen.

He was blonde and wore goggles on his head. His clothes looked clean and sharp, but a bit messy. 

“Hello! Care to tell me what happened out here? Do you know?”  
The stranger looked to the wall with the window.  
“my, my what a lovely cave that is! Surely couldn’t have been made with the resources around here. Is that what fell from the sky?”

“How many of you are here?”

“Us? Just three counting me. But I’d much prefer if you’d answered my questions first, dwarf.”

A human. He seemed like some sort of scientist or wizard. He certainly was well off in his town. But right now, he didn’t seem threatening, he didn’t have any weapon visible on him and Honeydew couldn’t spot anywhere he could’ve hidden one in.

“Look. I’ll tell you what happened, but in return, you’ll have to leave me alone. I don’t want any more search parties around here.”

“Got something to hide?”

Honeydew flinched. He wasn’t good at this. The stranger laughed.

“I’m Duncan. I’m a scientist, I’m interested in these kinda things y’know. I want to know what fell from the sky, so I can make something like it, if it is what I think it is.”  
“a spaceship. A spaceship fell from the sky into the ocean, exploded into pieces right before my eyes, the waves of the impact wrecking my hut. I rebuilt it with the pieces that floated ashore-“  
“floated! But it looks like metal!”  
The stranger called Duncan walked to the spaceship board, meaning to touch it. Honeydew stopped him.

“That’s enough investigation scientistman! Don’t forget the deal!”  
“What deal I didn’t say anything…”  
Honeydew sighed and rolled his eyes.

“I won’t let you take apart my house. Surviving alone is tough and I’d rather you wouldn’t make it more difficult.”  
“I just want a piece to look at. Do you have anything I could bring with me? I could trade survival goodies if you want”

Honeydew began thinking about what he could give him and what he needed most. He did think about needing a bed this morning but, a bed wouldn’t change the fact that they were starving, and that one end of their cave was still open, without a door. He figured the hunk of junk with threads hanging off from it was useless enough, so he decided that’s what he’d give him.

Honeydew brought the broken machine outside. The stranger gasped.

“Give me a jacket, a knife and food. Or something that’ll get me food.”  
“Oh! I’ve got all those things. Is it alright if the jacket’s too big for you though? I didn’t really bring dwarven jackets-“  
“It’s fine, I’ll need it for when winter comes.”

Duncan wandered off, and Honeydew was left waiting with the metal monster that would potentially get them what they needed, if the strangers were kind enough to actually trade, instead of just murder them and take everything.

“Honeydew?”

He found Xephos, standing at the entrance. How would he explain the trade to him? And that he should stay hidden? Or that they could be in danger?  
Honeydew left the machine outside and got in the cave. He took a bit of coal from the furnace and began sketching. The machine, the trade, what he’d asked for. Xephos nodded slowly.

“The people that were looking around yesterday want the piece of your spaceship, Xephos. Be it by brute force or by trading, I’m not sure yet.”  
Honeydew grabbed his axe, and Xephos his sword. Honeydew gestured him to drop it.  
“They’re looking for everything in the spaceship. Including you. You have to stay hidden.”  
Xephos misunderstood and tried swinging the sword. He wanted to prove he could help.  
“no, no, look.”  
Honeydew pointed at the trader in his drawing.  
“He doesn’t know you’re here and it’s best if he never finds out. He’s a scientist, and I don’t want you becoming his next test subject.”  
Honeydew drew the three traders, taking Xephos away in the carriage.  
Xephos sighed and put the sword aside.  
“That’s better. Now go and hide, they could come any minute now…”  
Xephos huffed and huddled in a corner, covering himself with the blanket.  
“Don’t worry. If I need your help, I’ll call you. I’ll run back to the cave.”

Honeydew went back out and sat by the machinery. He thought, if he found more pieces, he could demand for more stuff. But that would mean to ask the trader if he could stop by regularly to check if he’d found anything. He wasn’t sure yet if he wanted that.

“Hello! I’m back! Sorry, I had to convince one of my men to give up his jacket, took some time…”  
Duncan had brought a sharp knife, a red Jacket with golden accents and a bundle of beef jerky.

“Now, I’ve been thinking, and I thought that I could leave you the task to find me more of these kinda pieces. The ones that are useful to me are the ones with a lot of stuff in them to look at, like the one you’re holding. I could drop by regularly to check, and I could bring you better stuff since what you have there is something I can’t find anywhere else. Compared to what I’m giving you, well, it’s not really a fair trade to say the least.”  
Honeydew handed him the piece and Duncan the things he’d asked for.

“and by the looks of it you’re still in need of many things.”

Honeydew sighed.

“Only you can drop by. Nobody else.”  
Duncan stole a glance at Honeydew’s axe.  
“but what if-“  
“We have a deal. It would be of no use to me if I killed you, because getting more goodies gradually instead of just the ones you’d bring with you the time I killed you is better. Now you however, you could kick my ass anytime and claim all the shit for yourself, is what I’m worried of.”  
Duncan chuckled, and patted at Honeydew’s shoulder.  
“Oh dwarf! I wouldn’t do that, I’m too lazy for that. In fact, it’s good that you’re here, I can just leave you looking, and have more time to inspect what you bring me, instead of me having to search for every scrap.”

“so we have a deal then?”  
“I guess so. Ah, but I don’t know your name yet.”  
“Honeydew.”  
“Well, thanks Honeydew. Anything you’d like me to bring next time I drop by? In a couple of days I think I will.”  
“uuh… sure… umm… let me think…”

They still had a few boards from his former house. But he hadn’t been able to use them because of the lack of nails and tools. They could make a door with them… Then there was the coal in their cave they hadn’t been able to dig out. And the sword they hadn’t been able to sharpen. Or the farm they hadn’t started yet, or the fishing rod they’d need for fishing, the potential new source of food Honeydew had been thinking about.

“a hammer, nails, a mattress, or something to sleep on, spare shirt and trousers, and a pickaxe.”  
“Good! A mattress would be difficult to bring out here though, would a stuffed cotton blanket be enough? I’ll make up for it with bringing you some more food, if you’d like…Oh, and the clothes would be too big for you as well”  
“that’s fine, thanks.”

Duncan walked off, clearly happy about his discovery and their deal. Honeydew couldn’t exactly call him a friend yet, but his benevolence struck him as a good sign. He’d helped them a lot with the stuff he’d already brought.  
He got in the cave with the traded goods and heard the carriage leaving.

“Xeph. It’s fine. Look.”  
Honeydew showed Xephos the food, the knife and his brand-new jacket. 

“Put it on! It’ll suit you.”  
Xephos took it in his hands, smiling at the golden buttons, the wonderful warm red colour, and the elegance of its cut. It was worn a bit, but barely. It seemed that the former wearer had just bought it.   
Xephos put it on, and found it fit him perfectly. 

“It’ll help you blend in, if somebody else comes. Your spaceclothes and looks are… too striking.”


	4. Xephos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Xephos' point of view.

He must be presumed dead. Given by how the spaceship fell he must’ve died. But here he was, alive and on “earth”. A miracle he’d begun to appreciate the more he lived with Honeydew. If it weren’t for him…he didn’t want to think about being without him. 

Xephos remembered when he was woken up by the rain after the crash. Looking up, it seemed like travelling through hyperspace. Before he opened his eyes fully, before he felt the droplets fall onto his skin unlike stars, he could’ve sworn he was still traveling back to the mothership, no scratches, no wounds, no accidents, his spaceship intact and whirring about with life. 

Without ever having to meet Honeydew. It was odd, before he’d even known, before he’d woken up, Honeydew had already meant something to him much grander and more meaningful than most people in his life. Honeydew had saved his life, and he continued preserving it through nourishing and looking after him, even though, Xephos could tell, he struggled with taking care of himself already.

Living on earth seemed to awaken long lost feelings and primitive reflexes his soul and mind had forgotten. Back on his ship, he’d never worried about food or sleeping. There was no need for sleep where he came from, where nights and days blended together, time having only a meaning to those who aged. As for energy, it was obtained in other ways, aside from food. How exactly, he didn’t know, he hadn’t been in charge of looking after that aspect of the ship. There were different rules, different conditions on earth, and his body struggled to adapt to it.

He’d laid awake the first night, until he gave in to his overwhelming exhaustion. He still remembered Honeydew’s uncontrollable shivering. Xephos was fine, his suit perfectly maintained his body temperature. He wanted to somehow warm Honeydew up, but he didn’t know how. He didn’t want to overstep boundaries either. Although they already felt at ease with each other, it didn’t change the fact that they’d met not too long ago.

If Honeydew still had his spare shirt, he wouldn’t have to feel cold at nights, yet he’d used it to patch up Xephos. If Honeydew’d kept his food for himself, he wouldn’t be starving.

Xephos had thrown up the first couple of times he’d gotten earthly food in him. He never let Honeydew know, he felt awful enough about it as it seemed that Honeydew struggled tremendously with just getting them one meal per day. They didn’t possess any sort of reliable source of food.

Either the fall, the dull lighting, the sunrays, or the starvation gave him headaches. He didn’t know how to get rid of them, much less how to ask for something that would help him. Even though he’d started sleeping, he felt like he had a considerable amount less of energy. Less energy to talk, walk, work, learn…

Learning the language Honeydew spoke to him was a pain. Most of the time he could guess what words meant, fill in the gaps with things he’d already heard him say or with words he already knew. He had the feeling he understood most, he could deduce most from the information that was given to him through gestures and drawings, but he still couldn’t talk. It made sense that he’d be the one learning and not Honeydew, but still he wished sometimes it would be so.

“Xephos!”

Honeydew then proceeded with saying something about food. Xephos presumed he’d mean that he’d go get some. But why, if they’d already gotten some for the day? Xephos held up the bundle of beef jerky.

“no no, we’ll leave that stuff for winter. Fish and beef jerky for winter. We could also dry up some apples and make apple rings I think. If you don’t eat some sort of vegetable your body reacts all weird y’see.”

Winter…. A word he’d heard a couple of times lately of which meaning he hadn’t been able to decipher.

“Hey, next time the Duncan guy, the trader will come back. Could you try and get some other piece of your ship to give him? Can you go back to the beach while I go look for food?”

The beach, the trader, a piece. Xephos understood.  
They both went out in opposite directions. Xephos with his sword, Honeydew with his axe, for good measure.

“bye Xephos! Come back in one piece with the piece!”  
“bye… Honeydew…”

Arriving at the beach, he took off his jacket and swum into the water. Swimming was oddly comforting, even though he couldn’t quite remember where he’d learnt it from, or the last time he’d swum that wasn’t on earth. It could be that his memories got a bit shaken up by the crash.

How space looked, what his crewmembers were like, how to orientate himself in the ship, and how it was, to do his former work, those memories all remained intact it seemed, but he couldn’t quite remember specific experiences or memories with any of these components. Had they been that boring? Had they been that meaningless?

He grabbed little pieces of the ship that were floating in the water and brought them to the shore. They were all little bits of wall, perhaps useful as building material but not much else. He stood, looking over what was in front of him.  
What the trader had taken was a piece of the main computer. He wondered if he’d find more fragments of it.

His gaze wandered, away from the beach. He hadn’t had much time until now to take in the atmosphere and beauty of earth. He’d explored around a bit when Honeydew was gone, but with his limp he hadn’t been able to get far. 

The sea continued endlessly to the horizon. The mountains hid the whole world behind them. It certainly reminded him of the coldness he felt travelling in space. A coldness, that came from the knowledge that everything was out there, but where he was, there was nothing.

A yellowy glow deep in the water caught his eye.

The tracker.

He swum as fast as he could to it. He grabbed it and brought it to the surface with difficulties.  
Once on the beach, he stared at it.

A tracking device, a device that would tell his crewmembers, his family, the people he’d known since forever where he was.

He smashed it to pieces with his sword. One hit. Regret. A hesitant second hit. A slice through the cables. He mangled it to a state he knew it wouldn’t work anymore. He sunk to the earth, defeated, looking at his doing. It wouldn’t be of much help to the trader.  
The trader…  
The trader wanted to build a spaceship.  
Xephos looked up to the sky. He teared up, not knowing exactly what to feel. He closed his eyes, refocusing. If the trader would succeed, he wouldn’t go back. It hadn’t been long, but he knew he belonged here. Something about how everything looked and how he felt about it told him he did. Travelling around in space never gave him that feeling. Or, he didn’t remember having felt it.  
Having felt his feet heavy on the ground, the wind swirl in his hair, the coldness of his hands when he sunk them in water and the pain of strained muscles, tired but alive from work. And, the thrill of adventure, discovering something he’d never even been able to dream of. Knowing, that if he’d walk to the cave, he’d find a friend who’d have his back. 

He knew forgetting his past forever would do him no good, but he felt there was nowhere for him to return to. This was the only way he could go.

He walked home with the pieces, knowing he’d be the first to be back. In the time he waited, he thought he could do something about Honeydew feeling cold.  
He took off his boots that reached up to his knees calculating approximately how much of his trousers were covered by the boots. He marked the spot in his mind and took his trousers off. He grabbed the knife and started cutting at the marked spot on both pantlegs. The textile was elastic, so it would fit around his friend’s muscular arms, he thought.  
He grabbed the blanket and cut a hole in it, making a poncho. Where the arms would be, he attached the textile of his trousers, by heating it up in the oven fire and letting it melt a bit at the hems. He burnt the cut ends of his trousers too, so the ends wouldn’t tear.  
He chuckled looking at his work. Honeydew would look ridiculous in it, but he certainly wouldn’t feel cold anymore. It would be a fitting payback gift for the carved bowl.

“hello there- ah-”

Honeydew saw a bit of his new poncho-jacket before Xephos hid it behind his back.

“whaddya got there buddy...?”  
Honeydew couldn’t hold back a grin, anticipating the surprise.

“hello…it’s… uh…. It’s….blanket….”  
Xephos chuckled sheepishly and showed Honeydew his gift. Honeydew tried holding back his laughter but couldn’t. He walked towards Xephos and took the jacket.

“oh my…. Oh my god! This is…. where’d you get these black sleeves from ?”  
Xephos took off one of his shoes. Honeydew’s laughter became only louder.

“You look ridiculous !! you have like little shorts on now….”  
Xephos put his boot back on and smiled brightly, Honeydew clearly enjoyed and appreciated his gift.

“Thanks man, I needed me one of these. Winter and all…”  
Honeydew put the poncho on and it was now Xephos’ turn to laugh. It fit him, but as he anticipated, he looked far better without it.

“so! How do I look?”  
Honeydew grinned and posed for Xephos who nodded inbetween laughter in response.

“Good!”  
“Good? I’d say fucking perfect. It suits me, this. Makes me look like a teddy bear after two earthquakes and a tornado. Fucking horrific!”

They both laughed until their bellies hurt.

“alright alright, let’s get working! I brought these…”  
Honeydew pulled out a little bush with orange capsules, and another one without out of his bag.

“I couldn’t find any more, but I think this is, y’know, a nice thing to add to the potatoes that we’ve got. The orange bits are goldenberries!”  
“Golden…berries...”

Honeydew handed one of the capsules for Xephos to hold and opened one up for himself to eat.

“I like these… they’re a bit sour, but rare and they have the word gold in their name!”

Xephos grimaced at the taste when he bit into one. 

“I thought we could do some sort of jam with them, so it seems like there’s more food than we’ve actually got. That’s what this mint here’s for.”  
Honeydew pointed at the other plant he’d brought.  
“we can make tea…. The jam…. All sorts of things….”

Xephos wondered how they’d be able to sleep with only eating a bunch of goldenberries. The feeling of hunger had bothered him each day ever since he’d woken up after the crash and he knew Honeydew struggled with it too. Although sleep helped, he felt like it was harder and harder to fall asleep when all he could think of was of how desperately he needed to eat.

“Look. I know it’s not much, but with Duncan we’ll be fine! He’ll get us more stuff in no time.”

Xephos showed what he’d gotten from the beach, at the cue of Duncan’s name.

“That looks…battered… Oh well, a crash landing does that to things. Thanks for going out there and getting the piece for us.”  
“Thanks for… goldenberries…”

Honeydew smiled delightedly.  
“You’re welcome!”

Honeydew harvested all ripe goldenberries, cut them with the knife they’d gotten from the trader and mixed them together with water from the waterfall and a handful of mint leaves, letting them cook in the pan. Xephos wondered when he’d carved a stick for stirring.

“hmm… You brought more metal pieces from the ship right? Let me look at them again…”  
Honeydew went through them and picked a small pointy bit out of the bunch.

“You see, I have this bit of string from the bundle of wooden boards we’ve brought from the beach. I thought we could use it for a fishing rod. I think this piece here might do a great hook.”

Honeydew shaped and sharpened the piece of metal, using a cave rock and the knife occasionally.  
After Honeydew finished the fishing rod, both went out at dusk to plant the berry bush, the peppermint plant and the two potatoes by the river. Honeydew set up the fishing rod lower by the river with a worm and by the time they’d finished their work they’d caught a hand-sized fish.  
After cleaning the fish off its head, skin, bones and insides, Honeydew cooked it in the pan with the goldenberry jam.

“I’d rather store the jam but, we don’t have anything to store it in.”

Xephos ate his respective half of Honeydew’s cooking, finding it tasted not as bad as he’d expected it to taste.

“What I want us to do tomorrow, is get ourselves as many apples as possible from the witch’s house to dry. Then finish the walls of the cave, as well as getting all your spaceship stuff out of the water, I don’t wanna have to dive into the water for more pieces when it’s cold…”

Honeydew looked out, watching the sunset. Then stood up and left with the knife. Xephos didn’t wait to see what he was up to, he went to sleep, settling himself near the fire.

 

Xephos woke up alone. He felt grass and leaves digging into his back. He looked to his side and found that Honeydew’d layed out a layer of weeds to cover the floor. He noticed it wasn’t as cold as it was before, so it must’ve worked.

He looked outside, the sun was right above him. He noticed, the walls of the cave were done too. Inbetween the rubble and clay that made up their walls he could make out the little bits of metal scraps he’d brought yesterday. He wondered how long he’d slept.

“Ah! Good you’re awake! I figured I could start without you, I didn’t want to wake you up…”

Xephos stood up, shaking off some bits of grass from his boots. Looking at Honeydew, he noticed his tired expression. Worry crept up on him.

“As I said yesterday, you’ll need to help me carrying stuff… come on, follow me! I’ll lead the way to the Witch’s house!”

They packed all they needed and left the cave. They walked and walked, deeper into the forest. Xephos felt uncomfortable, he heard sounds he hadn’t heard until now, possibly from unknown creatures. The deeper they went, the more unbearable was the atmosphere. Honeydew seemed oblivious to it all, he didn’t notice a significant shift in mood in him.

“We’re here… I think it’s best if I whisper from now on. I don’t know if there is someone in there, but I don’t wanna risk trying to find out. Just, grab as many apples as you can.”

The house looked… entrancing. Something about it caught his eye, despite the journey here being off-putting. After looking at it for a while, he noticed it seemed like it was alive, even though he couldn’t exactly pinpoint any feature that made it look that way. He understood why Honeydew started acting careful the moment he laid eyes on it.  
They both were able to get twelve apples in total. They left the side of the tree nearest to the fence bare. Honeydew gestured Xephos to get a move on, away from the house.

“right! Some for now, some for later. I think we can get more fish from the river… or try our luck finding something in the ocean. If I’m honest, I have no idea what’s edible from there. I know clams, some algae and crabs are edible but, I don’t know, I think we’ll have to see…”

Honeydew stopped for a second. Xephos turned to look at him. He seemed like he’d zoned out for a while.

“Ah! I’m awake! Don’t worry, it’s just…. I haven’t gotten much sleep lately…”

Xephos rushed to him and took most of the apples Honeydew was carrying off him. They arrived at the cave, walking at a slower pace. They both sat down, not facing each other.

It seemed like a while passed before Xephos noticed they hadn’t done anything, and Honeydew had fallen asleep. Xephos put his jacket over Honeydew and took his helmet off. Xephos decided he’d take it upon himself to finish today’s work.

The silence and what had happened distracted him. He already knew Honeydew had troubles keeping up with all the tasks they had each day but if it took a toll on his health…

Xephos prepared the fishing rod outside by the river. Afterwards he bathed in the waterfall and found that the bleeding at his side had stopped altogether. It still somewhat stung, but nothing like it had done the days before. He took off his bandages and put them by their few belongings in the cave. 

A turbine, beef jerky, a knife, their two bowls, Honeydew’s axe, a canteen, flint and tinder, some logs, a sharp stone, wooden boards, his own sword, Honeydew’s bag, the carved stick they used for cooking, the apples they’d just harvested….

He remembered Honeydew had said something about the spaceship. He figured, he’d have to get more pieces of it from the beach.


	5. Tea for three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A team of three, planning their future.

“…for our time had its happy end…”

“what happy end…”

Honeydew scratched his neck and looked awkwardly at the non-existent floor. He knew very well the person that was talking to him was friendly, but at that moment he didn’t want to listen to their voice.

“I tried my best, I really did…”

Darkness, machinery, but unlike the ones he found in the beach, they were working. Pulsating lights and nameless components, working towards a goal that seemed so far in the distance, yet still too near to the present. And his eyes… wet and hurting, blinded by those lights.

Red, white, black.  
Red, white, black.

“Hey… since I won’t be seeing you again, won’t you . …”

Honeydew woke up abruptly, with the feeling of having had the worst nightmare of his life. His body felt heavy and cold sweat made his hair stick to his skin. The more awake he became the less he remembered his dream, though the panic subsiding slower.  
No sign of Xephos except his jacket’s warmth. It was night.

“shit… shit SHIT!”

Honeydew stood up quickly, taking his axe and going outside. Walking aimlessly, he called for Xephos.  
Then something wet touched his shoulder.

“ARGH!”

Xephos jolted away from him, then gently placed his hands on Honeydew’s shoulders again. He’d gone to take a bath in the pond.

“god…… don’t scare me like that, you could’ve been in danger or something…”

Xephos brushed one of his friend's strand of hair soaked in sweat. Honeydew waved him away with his still trembling hand and made a turn back to the cave. Xephos led him to the spaceship pieces he’d brought. Some sort of container, three pieces with buttons and threads of varying sizes, bits of wall.

“is this… all of them? Aren’t there any more outside?”

Xephos didn’t respond.

“Heh… well… I guess we can’t ever know for sure.”

Honeydew moved away from him and started cutting the apples to dry them. He cut them in rings, and ate half of the leftovers, leaving Xephos the other half. Eating at the apple core felt like eating a sad chicken wing. No meat, just bits of apple here and there. He left the applerings where he knew the sun would get to them in the morning.

He collected the apple seeds and went outside to plant them by the river. It would take ages for a tree to grow, but he didn’t have any plans of moving away from the cave anytime soon.

Living with Xephos as a roommate for a couple years… didn’t sound half bad. Xephos wasn’t particularly useful and he couldn’t properly talk, but he figured, he’d be able to get used to that fact easily. And it wasn’t like he was stuck like that forever, he could learn. Slowly, but steadily.

He glanced to his side and found Xephos looking at the fishing rod. He held it up proudly, a slightly bigger fish than the one yesterday in his hands.

“good job !! I thought we’d just be eating apples tonight…”

Having cooked the fish with some leaves of mint, it tasted like something, but not quite yet like a meal. He’d give anything for at least salt and pepper…

“That’s... all for today…Go to sleep Xeph. I might work on some more stuff, since I slept all day.”

It seemed he’d begun to get used to staying up late. His internal clock was messed up since birth anyways, dwarves had no way to tell when it was day or night underground. There were clocks around nearer to the surface to plan trading, but usually their numbers didn’t mean anything to him.

Xephos slept soundly. Honeydew noticed, he wouldn’t move around much but he’d frown occasionally. No bad dreams like his, he hoped.

Honeydew went back outside again to fish. He hoped to be successful, having breakfast for once would most definitely improve his mood. Not that he was in a particularly foul mood but trying to survive each day tired him out. And stressed him too.

A couple of clouds covered the sky. The forest to the back of the cave seemed threatening at night. If a fox had gotten to them, who said a bear, or a wolf couldn’t?  
As if summoned by his thoughts, he noticed the eyes looking at him from the shadows by the trees. He couldn’t quite recognize the shape, but it looked like half a meter smaller than him.

He slowly made his way back to the cave to get the axe. When he was outside, he found a boar sniffing at their potato plant.

“HEY!! DON’T MESS THEM UP THOSE ARE OURS!”

The boar jolted up and backed off slowly. Too slow to get out of Honeydew’s range of attack.

“yes YES! FOOD!! PLENTY OF FOOD!!”

Honeydew noticed Xephos had gone out to notice what the ruckus was about. Seeing the boar, his eyes brightened.

“See this? this is breakfast, lunch and dinner! Even with that we’ll get some leftover!”

On his way to Honeydew, Xephos walked down to the fishing rod, finding they had caught a second fish as well.

Honeydew spent the night cleaning and skinning the boar. While he worked on it, he taught Xephos how to prepare fish.

“That’s right …after you get the scales off, a cut there, the head off…”

They alternated with using the knife and the sharp stone, depending on who needed it most.

The entrails of the fish and boar he left on one of the smaller wall pieces outside. They could eat them, but he figured with all the spaceship parts for trading there wouldn’t be much of a need for food for a good while. Using the entrails as bait for traps and fishing, were in his eyes, a much better use for them.

While he washed his gloves and knife, the sun rose. An idea popped in his mind as it did.

“Xephos, hand me the container and come with me.”

They went back to the beach again, to fill up the container with salt water. The container was as big as him, so he needed help to carry it. With the couple of liters of salt water in it, it weighed a couple of kilograms more than he could handle too.

On their way back the trader bumped into them.

“……...bollocks.”

Duncan dropped the stuff he’d brought with him and glanced at Xephos in disbelief. Xephos had forgotten to put on his jacket. But even then…

Honeydew and Xephos put down the container with saltwater.

“so . .. …. So that’s what you were hiding.”

“it’s… yeah… the spaceman who came with the ship.”

Honeydew awkwardly rubbed at his neck.

“so, I recon you brought our stuff?”

Duncan completely ignored his question.

“can it talk? hello there!”

Duncan approached Xephos without restraint.

“Let me have a look at you…”

He looked at him up and down, pulling at his clothes to look closer at the fabric and holding Xephos’ chin in his hand, looking at him from different angles. Xephos resisted mildly, his cheeks flushing red. Honeydew rushed between them.

“I would prefer if you wouldn’t treat my friend like an animal.”

“oh. Sorry. Got a bit too carried away…”

Honeydew worriedly glanced at Xephos. Xephos regained his composure.

“you alright there?”

Duncan retreated, and turned to explain to Honeydew.

“You see, these guys are originally from earth. Humans. They closed themselves off for centuries, hoarding all kinds of magnificent technology for themselves. Eventually they discovered space travel, and left earth forever. Well, until this one came back I guess.”

Honeydew was not impressed.

“I’ve researched their culture, there are ancient manuscripts around from ages ago that I’ve picked up, but they’re pretty rare. These guys really didn’t want to be followed to space, all their books are encrypted so only the “smartest of the smartest” could read them. They were an elitist and pretentious kind if you ask me.”

Honeydew squinted at Duncan, who’d gone on in a mad ramble about Xephos’ kind.

“so do you have our stuff or not? We have work to do here, I mean, sorry to interrupt your speech, but you either come with us inside to keep talking and help us salt the fish or you leave the stuff here and keep talking to yourself in your carriage.”

Duncan blinked at him, clearly not having taken attention to anything else beside the fact that he’d found a spaceman.

“oh… sure, sure, I’ll come in and help you. I was meaning to, actually.”

“so you could find out what I was hiding?”

Duncan gave no answer, instead wordlessly went to grab the container, carrying it back with Honeydew. Xephos walked in front of them. Duncan changed the subject.

“You know, I’m not sure how the conditions are outside of earth. If I could know what’s evolved differently in him, it would help me a great lot.”

“evolved? What do you mean?”

“well, all of us, orcs, dwarves, elves… we all come from one root. One creature, that’s adapted itself according to their surroundings. You for example, you can see better in the dark than me. And you’re smaller so you can fit better in mineshafts.”

“right…”

“so, tell me, what’s different about him? I’m not quite sure if I’ve observed anything peculiar, aside from his suit being out of some weird material”

“well… I had to teach him how to sleep the first night. When I went to sleep he thought I had died. His language is something else completely. Eating didn’t seem to come naturally to him either.”

“that’s…. unlike anything I would’ve expected.”

They got to the cave, Honeydew and Duncan left the container outside, where the water could evaporate, so salt would collect at the bottom.

“ah yeah! Your stuff, here it is…”

Duncan handed them the pickaxe, the hammer, nails, a stuffed cotton blanket, a bedsheet, a spare shirt, spare trousers, a hand sized bag of wheat grains and a bag of beans.

“what piece have you got for me?”

“a couple, actually. You’ll have to bring me some more stuff, but I think I’ll need a while to figure out what. I’ll tell you once you leave.”

Honeydew pointed at a corner, where they’d stacked all spaceship pieces.

“ooh wonderful, even the little bits here could be useful you know, according to the way they crafted the alloy, it hints at its purpose. If it’s sturdy, it would most likely be used somewhere where high pressure was applied. You know, so it doesn’t break. If it’s lighter…”

“sure sure. You try reconstructing the spaceship.”

Duncan looked through every single piece. Even those they’d built in the wall.

“I reckon I can take apart the w-“

“nope.”

“but if I replace it with something else…”

Duncan seemed to have read the answer from Honeydew’s look.

“fine. I won’t need all anyways, I have some blueprint drafts that’ll give me a vague idea…but I’m taking the bigger pieces.”

Silence ensued. Xephos looked around awkwardly, Honeydew crossed his arms. He wondered what could happen, with such a trio. He’d trusted Xephos much quicker than Duncan. This was because of his concern of Duncan’s almighty abilities of science, that could maybe even lead him to rebuilding a spaceship from scratch. Although he knew Xephos’ kind worked with far more advanced things Duncan had ever worked with, he didn’t get that feeling from him.

Honeydew walked to the boar pelt and started cleaning it with the sharp stone. Since they were more sturdy than soft, belts would be the appropriate choice to shape it into. The rest could very well be made into a bag for Xephos.

“soo…uh… I’d like you both to come to my laboratory. Please.”

“woahwoahwoah. Hold it.”

Honeydew pinched the bridge of his nose facing away from Duncan and held up a hand at him as if he was trying to make Duncan disappear with his mind.

“what’s wrong? I mean, you asked for the clothes to disguise him, right? So now he can go anywhere!”

“you be the judge. See if we could fool you humans with putting him in new clothes.”

Duncan took the shirt he’d brought and gave it to Xephos. Xephos put it on with his jacket, the blue stripes of it complementary to the jacket’s red.

“Well he looks good in them but…”

Duncan looked at him up and down.

“I might still think there’s something off with him. Plus, you said he can’t talk?”

“It’s not like he can’t, he’s learnt a bunch with me already.”

“Oh, if you don’t mind I could teach him, I’m a good teacher I think, I have a couple of apprentices at my lab right now…”

“you’re just trying to find a reason to bring him with you…”

“well…I don’t mean any harm. I don’t know why you’re still wary of me, I’ve done plenty to help.”

Duncan sat on the floor and crossed his arms looking slightly frustrated.

Honeydew knew Duncan wouldn’t give in and keep trying. He hoped they would come to an agreement that wouldn’t endanger Xephos. He wasn’t particularly worried about Duncan hurting Xephos anymore, but already factoring in his apprentices worried him. If perhaps the rumour spread, the people residing in the city had to be considered too. Sure, they could say he was some foreigner, but that would still drag attention to him. Something he knew Xephos wouldn’t be able to handle very well.

“Look…. Just, give us a minute will ya? We have to finish setting up things here and… Xephos practically only knows this. The cave, the woods, the beach, as far as I know… I mean, he can’t tell me anything. It’s only been days for god’s sake, you’re asking too much from him!”

Xephos shifted uncomfortably as he sat, probably knowing they were arguing about him.

“What about if I stay here for a little while and help out? I could bring my own food and more for you if you’re in need of it…”

Honeydew sighed and looked at Xephos.

“If you start doing weird experiments the moment I leave you alone with Xephos you’re out.”

“nononono. I didn’t ever mean to do that.”

“Fine… I’ll still be watching you though. Xephos, the trader’s staying for a while.”

“Yahoo! I’ll be back soon, just need to get some stuff from my carriage.”

Duncan skipped to the carriage in the forest. Honeydew glared at him as he left. Xephos chuckled.

“you understand, do you? He’ll stay for a couple of days to help. He’ll probably want to teach you a thing or two.”

“don’t worry!”

“yeah, I know he doesn’t seem dangerous but still...”

While Duncan was gone, Honeydew started cutting three generous steaks off the boar meat. They looked delicious.

“we don’t have any salt yet, but this should be good. Xeph, could you get some mint…?”

Xephos took too long to get back with the mint. Duncan came in with him, carrying a large backpack with his stuff.

“whaddya take so long for?”

“horses!”

It seemed Duncan had already started off with teaching Xephos.

“this might be a weird question but, how have you been drinking water?”

“just straight from the waterfall.”

“oh. it’s a miracle you haven’t gotten him sick yet. It’s better to boil it first. I’m not quite sure what Xephos’ immune system is capable of, there’s a bunch of earthly sicknesses and pests his body might not be used to anymore.”

Honeydew frowned and looked at Xephos, wondering.

“It might very well be that they’ve found a cure for all ailments or something. They are very advanced folk after all…”

“I hope so…”

“I’ll try to ask him once he knows the words.”

Duncan unloaded his backpack and laid out its content on the ground.

“What I’ve brought here are my tools, I can probably improve your cave somewhat… what I thought I could do, was some kind of contraption run by the flowing water outside… now if I maybe find something… to work with…”

Duncan started rummaging around the parts of the spaceship. Honeydew rolled his eyes.

“Xephos. Your bowl…”

Honeydew served the food and brought Duncan the pan with his ration.

“Oh! Nice! Thank you!”

Duncan took a little flask out of his backpack and sprinkled its content on his steak.

“what machine were you thinking of building?”

“something simple. This turbine here should do the trick. It’ll turn with the force of the flowing water, if we just connect it to something that we need to turn, we’ll have a basic machine. I brought wheat grains, if you plant them you could ground the yield to make flour. Doing all by hand is too much work. What I’m doing is a much more efficient long-term solution.”

“alright, I’m okay with that, you can start working on it…I’ll go chop some more wood”

“could you bring me some sturdy sticks for the machine? I’ll need one or two.”

Honeydew noticed Xephos was completely out of the conversation. He was frowning while looking at both, probably trying to decipher the contents of their speech.

“ah, don’t worry about him. I’ll teach him while I work on the machine…”

“right… well, remind me to get the coal outta the wall there with my pick when I get back.”

“gotcha. See you soon!”

Honeydew walked off, wondering if he’d left Xephos in the right hands.


	6. Golden apple

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previous chapter (5) in Duncan's point of view.

“In the best-case scenario, the dwarf’s hiding a survivor from the crash.”

“a survivor! you mean, a real space alien from the books you’ve been obsessing about for years? God, I hope so…”

“I hope so too…”

 

Kim swayed from side to side while working on her spells, sometimes cursing softly when she got them wrong.

 

“easy easy. Don’t get distracted!”

“I’m not! It’s just! It’s exciting to think about… We could find out a lot that way, couldn’t we?”

“yeah… they could tell me first-hand what it’s like out there! Space is the last thing I haven’t investigated yet. I’d love to know…”

“Duncan… it’s not like you know everything on earth already. I mean, you’re an awful barber for starts.”

 

Kim blew her fringe covering her right eye.

 

“but a great wizard and scientist. I’m talking about the things I’m interested in, not all knowledge in the whole damn world, my head would explode.”

 

Duncan sat on a chair, drinking apple cider, supervising Kim’s practice. They were in Kim’s wing of the castle, she’d settled in not too long ago. Unlike other apprentices, who visited the castle only for lessons.

She’d just turned up one day, no money, no destination, just a wish to be useful. Duncan had more than enough free space in his castle, with his inventions and work he’d gathered a hefty sum of money. Money that too funded more tools and materials to work with, to discover and help other people.

 

“well, I’ll leave you to it. After mailing out this weeks’ tasks to the apprentices I’ll see if I can get something out of the dwarf.”

“you go Duncan! Come back with something good!”

“and you don’t go blowing up my castle, huh? I told you, the stuff you’re practicing right now’s dangerous.”

“don’t worry about it ! It’s fine!”

“byebye…” 

 

Duncan chuckled to himself. Ever since Kim had arrived, he’d felt more upbeat. Although he knew loads of people and all cherished him, and he cared about them, it was a relief to have a genuine friend that wasn’t defined by their apprentice-teacher relationship. Not that Kim wasn’t his apprentice, but she knew more about him than the average joe.

Duncan went up the spiral stairs, to mail out this week’s homework to his students. For long-distance teachings letters were handy tools. Especially for beginners, who hadn’t been taught how to build their own radio yet.

Owls and pigeons flew out the windows, carrying letters. Duncan sat down, satisfied. He liked teaching, he felt like through teaching not only did he help other people, but he learnt new things as well, seeing subject matters from other people’s perspectives.

He shook his hand as it hurt from writing so much. He could've done it with the printing press, but that didn’t change the fact that he had tasks tailored for each student. Everyone learnt in different ways and had different interests too. Duncan was grateful for only having to send out letters for each once a month.

 

“the last thing I need… is my hands not functioning properly…” 

 

Sometimes he’d look back upon his years at work, baffled. He’d found out so much in his short span of life. Having started out as the apprentice of the Wizard Fumblemore, occasionally also being taught by his brother Bogbeard, he continued his research after having completed his training. This research filled libraries, sometimes he himself even forgetting all he had done. There had been too many failures to count, but none that had too big of an impact on him to make him stop working on science and magic.

Although, crediting him for all research results and papers, would be wrong. He’d gathered much information from travelling around, learning about legends to farming techniques, from alchemy to geography, all knowledge passed on from generation to generation. Talking to people who offered him wisdom made him well-known, which helped him gather students, supporters and helpers.

The data he gathered he put in a vast library, organized thoroughly, by date, subject, sub-groups, authors, the only papers that were on the shelves were the ones proven to be true. The others he gave to his students as tasks to validate or disprove, or he kept them and worked on them on his own. This way, theories were constantly updated, people of all ages and backgrounds flocked to share and read, disputes resolved by experiments; tools for it made available by Duncan upon supervision.

However much he’d helped people around him, there were still discoveries made that would cause great harm. Whenever he was informed of a curse, or weapon too powerful for mankind to wield, he’d heavy-heartedly enclose it encrypted in a hidden chamber, despite the constant voice in his head urging him to destroy all data. Each and every new technology he invented had to be completely fool proof, what he wanted least was to destroy what he’d wasted hours, months, decades in preserving.

Current topics he was working on were space travel and anatomy of various species. The latter he’d been postponing ever since he’d started investigating, for a reason he’d long forgotten. His full attention he’d devoted to space, lately.

Most things about space he’d found out from a Witch specialized in flight. She’d gone to mountaintops, travelled to distant lands, discovering much more of the world than he had done, which meant a lot.

This Witch, Hannah, he was lucky to meet in a pub. When he met her, she was in the middle of one of her stories about her journeys. What caught Duncan’s attention was that she was talking about a time when she’d fainted while flying, when she’d tried to fly as high up as she only could with her broom.  
Duncan knew, that going up mountains made you feel sick and not breathe properly, and he knew Hannah would know that from experience. He knew the reasons for her flying towards space weren’t out of foolishness, but out of curiosity, the core of any blossoming wise one.

Duncan made her acquaintance at once, knowing he’d finally found someone to share his vision with. Since then, Hannah flew many times to gather information, beating record after record of height above sea level reached. This with a breathing device Duncan perfected flight after flight. At first, he’d tried a water breathing potion. But the conditions were significantly different to that underwater, for a reason he hadn’t quite pinpointed an answer to yet.

He still remembered the time Hannah had landed after her last flight for his experiments, her eyes lit up, she seemed ecstatic, thrilled to report her findings to Duncan.

 

“I floated. Without the broom. I mean, I held it in my hands, so it wouldn’t get away from me but… I was weightless. Nothing stopped my movement when I propelled with my broom, I didn’t feel any wind in the air. Yes… I know what you’re thinking…it’s not like being in water at all…”

Hannah had looked to the sky, probably wondering what of the many things she’d found she could tell. Duncan waited patiently, although nearly shaking of excitement by their discovery.

“The moon… was still as beautiful.”

 

Duncan remembered many days after that event where he’d worked himself to exhaustion, sleep sacrificed for his new-found passion beyond his world. His imagination ran wild, his theories wilder. All could be proven… if only he found a survivor of the crash.

With those thoughts in mind, he went down to get the things he’d promised to give to the dwarf. He knew through helping he’d be able to get closer to him and find out what he was so adamant about hiding.

All things the dwarf had asked for he was able to get without much trouble. They were all basic survival tools and materials; Duncan felt pity about him even having the need for them. He wondered how the dwarf had gotten in a situation where he’d practically started from scratch. From the state the cave was in he figured it mustn’t have been too long ago.

Duncan packed extra food for the stranger.

With his two-horse carriage he left the path, away from civilization and into the wilderness of the forest. Last time he’d had trouble getting past all the trees and bushes, but now he knew which the easiest way was to go through.

Not having either Verigan II nor Adaephon with him this time around made him feel slightly uneasy. He knew, that if the dwarf knew them, he wouldn’t mind having them visit too. They were reliable and strong, they’d accompanied him through many journeys. Although he didn’t see them often, they had offered themselves to help without hesitation for that occasion.

Creeks, birds and the sound of wind rustling leaves led him back to the cave. He hid the carriage, and walked towards his destination, his bag crammed with goodies.  
He stopped in his tracks and let everything fall to the ground.

Duncan was starstruck. The deal he had with the dwarf, the spaceship pieces, all suddenly took a back seat to the fact of him having found a spaceman. His excitement overwhelmed him, everything was like he imagined it would be. The best-case scenario stood before him.

He couldn’t help but approach him. The lanky, pale…yet somewhat elegant figure of his key to space… seemed to feel uncomfortable.

 

-Stupid. I shouldn’t have done that.-

 

Duncan immediately felt bad about having treated him like a test subject, an experiment, a book yet to be written.

So did the dwarf, it seemed. Blowing his first impression wasn’t something Duncan was known to do, he tried leading the conversation somewhere more useful.

Duncan had so, so, so many questions, it felt like blurting them out all at once was difficult to prevent despite the impossibility of such an occurrence. But then there was the thrill of finding things out bit by bit, with having the knowledge of life in outer space already secured, in his grasp, for a second time after Hannah. He couldn't wait to go back and finish his research papers, tell Kim, Adaephon, Verigan II...Having seen many of Earth's wonders, he couldn't imagine what it would be to go beyond that.

He could tell Honeydew had been able to get close to the spaceman pretty quickly. Him knowing the spaceman’s name, stepping in when he sensed danger, cooperating with him for survival, he saw it all as a good sign. Having someone to lean on was what Xephos needed most now. Or what they both needed, to be precise.

However, Duncan didn’t quite understand the need to stay here. They could very well both live somewhere in his castle, somewhere where they were secure and had proper beds, plenty of food… Carrying materials here seemed like a waste. Though for now, this was their plan.

Duncan's presumptions of the state of their cave were proven to be true. A barely airtight wall, a precarious oven, a make-do fishing rod, all things that begged to be improved upon, more so with winter being only a couple of weeks away. He could think of a thousand solutions to increase the hospitality of their cave, he saw potential in the river's power to improve their productivity. A turning stone to sharpen tools with, a watermill to ground wheat, a sawmill to work with wood more efficiently...

But first he had to think of the essential things. What they clearly lacked were various kitchen tools, a proper storage, better light sources, tighter insulation, perhaps even livestock. Weaving baskets, putting together a barrel or a chest out of wood, or making pottery out of clay could certainly help with preserving their food rations, according to what was available he'd have to take either of those options. Clay and wood could also be used to shape cutlery out of.  
Concerning the insulation, he thought an additional layer of clay, hay, and or wood would do the trick. As for a light source, the oven wasn't too bad, and the sunlight served well during the day too, but during the night torches weren't as adequate as candles indoors. Torches were tough to light on and off for starters.  
Duncan made note to bring candles next time he left to his laboratory, as well as trying to bring chickens or a goat, something small, useful, and rather easy to keep. Honeydew had said he'd tell him what he needed later, he'd make sure to add whatever he wanted to his list too, but not before Duncan had voiced his thoughts on the next steps that could be taken towards improvement.

And then there was the pile of spaceship pieces in need of being sorted and looked at carefully. He didn't like the fact of having to use them as tools instead of puzzle pieces to his best creation yet, but that had to wait. He could always dismantle the machine afterwards, once he'd brought more adequate parts for machinery. Duncan knew, that they wouldn't need a watermill for a good while, but he expected a few trials before the machine could run flawlessly. Plus, it didn't have to be a watermill right away, Duncan was sure Honeydew could make use of a contraption to sharpen his axe and knife.

From a distance, he noticed Xephos was on his way out of the cave too. Duncan called after him.

 

“come, I’ll show you something.”

 

Xephos approached him, though with slight mistrust in his eyes. Duncan whistled, and his carriage appeared, pulled by his horses.  
Xephos’ eyes widened, and Duncan couldn’t help but chuckle.

 

“They're horses! Don’t worry about them, they aren’t dangerous.”

“horse…”

 

Duncan petted a horse and let Xephos near it. Xephos’ ran his hand through the horse’s mane awkwardly.

 

“uh… I, well, I wanted to say sorry... I’m sorry for making you feel bad earlier. When I saw you.”

 

Xephos turned to him and nodded. Apology accepted, he believed.

“Good! I hope I’m able to teach you well, If I’m honest, despite having written so much my grammar isn’t ideal. My forte really is only magic and science…”

 

Xephos walked to the mint plant and picked at the leaves, but still clearly listening to Duncan. Meanwhile, Duncan looked for his tools in the carriage.

 

“My language and yours, as you might’ve noticed, isn’t too different, they have the same root. While I cannot speak it, since I don’t have phonetic reference, I can write basic sentences…ah yes, I have a feather and paper...in my carriage…”

 

Duncan doubted Xephos understood what he’d said but hearing different words and training his ears to the sound of them were important steps to his learning. Understanding came always before speaking.

Duncan found the paper and quill, as he walked towards Xephos to get his attention again he wrote “I can write in your language!” on the paper. He'd figured out their entire alphabet by the few recordings of their presence on earth, along with a couple of words.  
Duncan showed Xephos what he’d scribbled. Xephos grinned as he went through the letters, then erupted in laughter.

 

“Wh..what? What’s going on?”

 

Duncan looked at his own writing again. He was sure he’d written what he wanted to say… Unless…

 

“I reckon… I reckon your language’s evolved since you were on earth, and it all sounds like nonsense to you now doesn’t it…”

 

Xephos gently nudged the hand Duncan was holding the writing feather with, after putting the mint leaves aside. Duncan gave it to him with the paper.  
Xephos struggled to hold the feather correctly but managed to get some characters of his language down.

 

“As I predicted… The letters look similar yet not quite the same.”

 

Puzzled, Duncan looked at the paper and back at Xephos. He wondered what he’d read in his writing that was so funny to him…

 

“We’ll have to get back to that later. Uuh…”

 

Duncan took the pen and paper back and put them away in his coat. Looking around, he wondered how else he could try to improve their communication.

 

“Oh… these weren’t here before when I first visited you…have you learnt what these are called?”

 

Duncan gestured towards their plants.

 

“mint…golden...uhh…potato…”

“quite good! Those are Goldenberries, Xephos.”

 

Xephos seemed a bit embarrassed about having forgotten the word. He grimaced.

 

“Don’t worry Xephos. You’ll have our language learnt in no time.”

 

Xephos picked the mint leaves back up and made his way back to the cave, but then Duncan noticed another bump of recently dug up dirt.

 

“hey, wait! And that?”

 

Xephos thought for a second, then muttered the word “apple”.

Duncan furrowed his brow and wondered how long they’d planned on staying here. Xephos would be able to learn the language in no longer than the span of 10 months, that would practically let him live among others. But the dwarf… he couldn't say for sure that he knew his motives, despite all. Xephos clearly wasn’t someone in need of babying, keeping him isolated would only be of detriment for him.

But he couldn’t dismiss Honeydew’s stance entirely. Although Duncan had travelled a lot, feeling foreign many times, he realized Xephos’ case was something else. Thinking more and more about his situation, gave him only a hint of an idea of what it must’ve been like for him, to land on earth. Duncan at least could go back home whenever.

Duncan couldn't claim he knew Xephos either, he couldn't yet possibly know how he'd react to people other than him and Honeydew. He didn't know his backgrounds however much he'd studied about the early beginnings of his kind, and Xephos couldn't yet voice any of his experiences.

These thoughts were... conflicting, to say the least. Duncan couldn't wait to be able to talk to Xephos about space, science, science in space...for that to happen it would take ages. Learning daily use words was a considerably easier task to do than finding words to describe space, something that might not even have words on earth yet. Duncan didn't know if Xephos would be willing to work with him either. He had to be considerate, he had to be patient, no experience of his proved otherwise.

Duncan saw Xephos hastily walk into the cave again. Being parted from the dwarf made him visibly nervous. Duncan rushed after him, carrying the tools he’d gotten from the carriage.


	7. Small steps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 6 was chapter 5 from Duncan's perspective, I hope you don't get confused with the timeline !

When Honeydew came back, he found Duncan and Xephos chatting. He couldn’t make out the words. Xephos rubbed his eyes, he was clearly tired from having stayed up most of the night.

Honeydew threw the pile of wood he’d gotten on a corner of the cave near the oven and turned to Duncan and Xephos.

 

“what have you been up to…”

 

“Not much, we planted the wheat grains outside, and left some of the boar meat to smoke by the oven. Can’t really start building the machine without the sticks…”

 

Honeydew had forgotten to bring him sticks.

 

“It’s not like it’s a priority right now anyway. Oh, and I should remind you to get the coal out of the wall there.”

 

“Yeah, yeah I’ll do that. Uuh…you might wanna get stuff outta the way, mining’s a messy business.”

 

Xephos and Duncan picked up their stuff and put it on the other end of the cave, while Honeydew poked the pickaxe tentatively at the wall, looking for the best approach to get the coal. He didn’t think any major damage to the cave would be done, the walls and ceiling looked sturdy. He’d definitely worked under far more precarious conditions in the past.

 

“this could be loud… go do something else meanwhile.”

 

“I thought some baskets and pots to store food could be useful right now. We’ll get the stuff to make them.”

 

“Right. Go do that. After this we’ll go to sleep, me n’ Xeph stayed up all night to skin the boar n’ fish.”

 

“I’m pretty tired from travelling up here too. C’mon Xeph, let’s go.”

 

As soon as he was sure they were gone, Honeydew began hacking at the wall. Chunks of coal flew everywhere, dust collected at the ground. There turned out to be far more coal than what he’d expected, pulling at the bit of wall beside the dark patch of stone revealed a small coal seam.

Honeydew got back into the old motion of mining pretty quickly. His subconscious remembered all those hours, days, years spent breaking up stone and granted him fast and precise work.

Still, he was covered in sweat and coal dust when he’d finished getting all the coal out. After rounding it up from the ground, and tossing the other useless pebbles and stones outside, he jumped into the pond by the waterfall. He shuddered. It was early in the afternoon. The cold water relaxed him, tiredness engulfed him.  
He heard Duncan and Xephos getting back in the cave with the things they’d gathered. As he got back in, upon seeing him soaking wet Duncan said he had a towel he could use.

 

“Thanks. Haven’t had anything of the sort in years…”

 

Duncan coughed and strained his eyes. A cloud of coal dust still floated around the cave.

 

“Thank god for dwarves. Anyone else would have their lungs turn black with all this coal dust…”

 

After them having some more of the boar meat to eat, Xephos layed out the stuffed cotton blanket and bedsheet Duncan had brought them and got ready to go to sleep.

 

“Might bring pillows next time. I’ll go sleep in my carriage…”

 

Honeydew waved at him lazily and got under the bedsheet too. His rough and rugged body felt odd enveloped by soft cotton.

The sun set in warm colours, Honeydew felt content. Half-lidded, his eyes perceived Xephos’ tranquil figure already asleep, before drifting into sleep as well.

Before the sun rose, Honeydew woke up and got some coal into the oven. He’d wait until the wood got dry before using it, as it burnt better that way.

After getting a fire started, he got some boar meat and put it to cook. Not much of it was left, Duncan and Xephos had put a large portion of it away to make into jerky.   
Duncan joined him soon after, probably having smelled the smoke. 

 

“G’mornin”

 

“Mornin'…”

 

Duncan stretched and yawned, then went to pick up the spaceship pieces.

 

“you leavin’?”

 

“nah. I’ll just have to take ‘em sooner or later. I’ll leave some that we could use…”

 

Duncan walked to and fro a couple times to load the pieces in his carriage, the sound of it waking Xephos up. As soon as he sat up, Honeydew handed him the bowl with his breakfast. Xephos smiled a tired morning smile.

 

"G’mornin’ Xeph. ‘nother day on earth.”

 

“Good morning, Honeydew.”

 

Honeydew ate his piece of boar steak in silence, then handed Duncan his as he stepped back into the cave.

 

“Thanks! Oh, by the way, we could leave the saltwater container near the oven, it’ll evaporate quicker.”

 

Honeydew rolled his eyes and took it as an insult of his cooking. But, there was nothing he could do about it. Salt did make a difference after all.

 

“Sure. After the meal we’ll move it.”

 

Duncan chuckled.

 

“We could even bring some spices in. I saw some on my way here…”

 

Honeydew shook his head and grinned.

 

“yeahyeah…”

 

After their meal, they moved the container near to the oven as they promised, and Duncan started telling them his plan to improve the cave.

 

“I thought about this a bit yesterday, what we need now is storing space, which we’ll get with the stuff Xephos and I brought yesterday, the rest we’ll make into some day to day tools like spoons, glasses and forks. Expanding our garden a bit would also help, carrots, beetroot, radishes, whatever we find that grows quick and we can store would be helpful. I was thinking of bringing a couple animals here to have but we’ll have to see.”

 

The latter sentence gave Honeydew the impression that Duncan had something in his mind. What exactly he wasn’t sure yet.

 

"sounds good."

 

Duncan and Honeydew sat, one making a basket, the other a pot of clay. Weaving a basket required technique, so Honeydew opted to make something that didn’t need that much finesse. Doing worms of clay and attaching them one to the other, building up to the rim of the pot was the easiest way to do it. He kept his food bowl beside him filled with water, to smooth out the sides with.

 

“Honeydew”

 

“hm?”

 

“If… if we eventually get to bring Xephos to my lab, I could make sure that there’s nobody else there to disturb us. I promise, in my carriage nobody’ll be able to see him, nor you.”

 

“That again… At least explain why you so desperately need him there.”

 

Duncan fell in silence. Honeydew knew it would eventually come to that. He knew that for Xephos to stay here, to stay with him he’d have to be able to interact and live with others too. He just wasn’t sure when the right moment for that would be. Xephos would have to know.

 

“I’m not his mum, we have to ask him directly.”

 

“For starters, surviving out here in the winter is an unnecessary effort, I have all we could need in my castle. And I need to have him in my lab because there’s several things I can’t bring back here. Tools which he could help me build the spaceship with for example.”

 

Honeydew had somehow completely forgotten that Duncan’s main priority wasn’t Xephos, or his wellbeing at all. It was all just so he could fly around like nobody else could. Anger welled up inside him.

 

“I’m gonna do you one better: why do you need to build a spaceship?”

 

“I… I need to know what’s out there. It’s driving me mad, the universe’s huge and we haven’t even gotten out to the moon yet. How am I supposed to know otherwise? I’m tired of looking up at the sky through my telescope, counting every star I’ll never reach.”

 

Honeydew understood and didn’t understand. He’d felt often trapped in his mountain. As he looked on outside, when the rare event happened that the huge metal doors opened themselves to the outside world, his chest ached. He believed though, that leaving his underground home wasn’t at all like leaving earth for space.

 

“Look. I just asked in case we do it sometime. It doesn’t have to be now, it doesn’t even have to be in the next few months. I just want you to understand, and to think about the possibility, okay?”

 

Honeydew didn’t say anything and frowned. Suddenly, he became suspicious of Duncan deliberately sabotaging their work so they had no other choice but to go to his castle.

 

“It’s not like I don’t care about his wellbeing, I do want to help him. I’m just…”

 

“getting ahead of yourself? Look, grabbing him like some sort of object when you first saw him pissed me off already, and you talking like this doesn’t make me think of you caring about him being a possibility.”

 

“I apologized to him. I didn’t mean it.”

 

Honeydew sighed.

 

“Looks like this’ll be our fight till the end…”

 

Duncan blinked at him.

 

“I do want to believe you mean well, Duncan.”

 

Honeydew stood up and picked up his vase-shaped pot carefully to bring it to a safer place to dry.

Xephos was outside tending to their vegetables and setting up the fishing rod again.

 

“Xephos should be getting back soon…”

 

Each conversation Duncan had with Xephos he noticed, he’d tried to jam in some sort of new word for him to learn. He wasn’t sure how efficient it would be in the long run, with so many new words at once… he was bound to forget the majority, he thought.

 

“Here, the sticks for the basket.”

 

Honeydew’s eyes widened upon hearing Xephos.

 

“Good job! Thank you. Hey, Honeydew, you think you can teach him how to make pots? Seems like something easier and quicker to start with than baskets.”

 

-Articles? When had that happened?-

 

"oh. Uh. Sure, come here, Xeph.”

 

Xephos sat down, looking at him expectantly. Honeydew couldn’t help but muster him with unfamiliarity, after realising how Xephos would not be experiencing the world with just him, but with Duncan too. Xephos picked up on his confusion and frowned worriedly.

 

“Sorry. Look, I have a bit of clay left. I’ll go get some more but first I’ll tell you how to work with this.”

 

Honeydew handed Xephos a bit of clay for the base. He heard Duncan skilfully intertwine the twigs behind his back, swift movements clear by the soft sound of the sticks rubbing against each other. Honeydew knew it was stupid to be mad at him. But thinking about Duncan taking Xephos away…his first travel companion, the first person that would’ve been willing to spend time with him and help him…

 

“Honeydew?”

 

“Ah, yes. First squish the clay to a smooth surface, about a finger thick, for the base.”

 

Honeydew made a flattening motion with his hands, Xephos turned his head a bit, concentration in his eyes, mimicking the way Honeydew had shown him to work the clay.

 

“Then a noodle, a worm…”

 

Xephos had the technique down in no time. Honeydew left him, took his axe to get more wood and more clay.

As he walked, he neared the shore. From a distance, he thought he’d seen a ship. But it was too far away to make it a threat, so he lost interest quickly.

He was reminded of the old witch’s hut. The fences looked broken down but, even those they would be able to use at this stage.

He still didn’t know if there even was someone in there, he’d have to check some other day.

Remembering his old thought, of the apples he took being somehow a sign of friends he’d meet, he smiled. That would mean more people after Duncan would come.

 

“a pain in the ass”, he thought.

 

He found himself feeling what he’d felt each time when he stayed in a town for too long. Already with just Duncan…

In his defense, he hadn’t had to work so closely with anyone in a long while. He couldn’t even claim that he did when he was in his community of miners. Sure, there existed a brotherhood with each dwarf in the mountain, but most of the time they were off working alone, not talking much except when a special event or banquet was going on.

 

“Honeydew!”

 

Xephos was calling for him. He dropped the logs he’d chopped and ran in the direction he’d heard him.

 

“...need help?”

 

Honeydew didn’t understand at first, and was worried something had happened. But then Xephos pointed at him questioningly.

 

“did, did Duncan tell you to ask me that?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Honeydew couldn’t help but smile proudly. Their communication was so much smoother already. Although he’d been upset with Duncan’s presence and his influence on Xephos, he also had to think of what Xephos would want too. He was happy Xephos didn’t have to be as frustrated as he’d been until now. Xephos beamed at him, as if picking up on his pride of his progress.

 

“Come, help me carry the logs.”

 

Between the two of them they were able to carry all the logs Honeydew had chopped. Honeydew had been so grumpy lately, he hadn’t noticed he hadn’t spent proper time with Xephos until now. On their way back, Honeydew and Xephos tried to keep a conversation going.

 

“did you finish the pot?”

 

“yeah...there’s no clay...”

 

“We used quite a bunch for the walls there, it’s tough to find any more.”

 

Suddenly Xephos jolted and drew in a sharp breath. He left the logs on the ground and studied his thumb.

 

“a splinter...let me see.”

 

Honeydew too laid the logs he was carrying on the ground and took off his gloves.  
He took Xephos hand and looked at it closely until he'd found what he was looking for.

 

“There. pulled out already.”

 

Xephos smiled kindly at him, and before he could pick up the logs again Honeydew handed him his gloves.

The glove's fingers weren't as long as Xephos’, but he managed to grasp onto the logs. Honeydew's rougher hands were less likely to get cut. He showed them off to Xephos, his scars that hardened his skin clear in the sunlight.

 

"thick-skinned, y’see?"

 

As they arrived, they found Duncan working on sealing off some smaller holes wind came in through with some little pebbles, wet dirt, sand and bundles of hay.

 

“ah… without a good paste this is tough. All i can do is just wedge in whatever.”

 

“‘s good enough Duncan.”

 

Honeydew turned to look at Xephos’ pot by his and saw that he’d shaped it like a little box. It even had a proper lid.

 

“Nice going Xeph! Turned out great !”

 

“Thanks.”

 

“Honeydew, do you still have the boards? we could use a door y’know.”

 

“Ah, yeahyeah, I’ll get to it. You brought us nails nd all after all…”

 

Together they laid out the boards to plan out the door. Since there weren’t that many boards, they chose to put them at the top, bottom, and at the side where it would be attached to the frame. The rest they’d cover in vertical and horizontal sturdy sticks, with other smaller, thinner ones intertwined, basketlike. A proper shielding against wind and cold.

Honeydew did the tough part, making holes with the nails, hammering in the dowels to attach the woodboards firmly to each other, creating a robust frame for Duncan to work with. Duncan did the work in need of precision: the hinges and door handle.

While they worked, Xephos cooked a fish for them to eat, and at the end he joined them to interlace the thinner twigs. Honeydew finished off with nailing the hinges and handle to the door, and attaching it to the cave frame. By the time they were done it was late at night, but they were all proud of their work.

 

“Well done, Duncan, Honeydew.”

 

Honeydew wiped the sweat of his forehead. He noticed something unusual.

 

“Xeph, you haven’t given me back my gloves.”

 

Xephos looked at him, then at the gloves. Hurriedly he took them off and handed them back.

 

“eh, you needed ‘em for today’s work. it's fine.”

 

"we’ll, I’ll be going now. Tomorrow we’ll look for more vegetables to use, if there are none I might’ve to go get some. Good night!”

 

“Good night, Duncan!”

 

“Come on, we gotta head to bed too, it’s gonna be a tough day…”

 

Honeydew sat and studied his hands and gloves. He heard Duncan leave behind his back.

 

“’ts all we can do… work and work and work…”

 

Xephos studied him curiously.

 

“You know what? We hafta’ have fun someday. A break. Maybe just talking while sitting on the grass, or…”

 

Honeydew thought of his past again, of how he’d spend his afternoons playing dwarven board games and dancing. He’d become a rusty dancer, but he thought it would be funny to try again to show Xephos.

 

“heheh…look at this.”

 

Honeydew wiggled his body a bit, and kept rhythm with his voice. He interrupted himself with his laughter and covered his face.

 

“oh god…this is so embarrassing…”

 

Xephos chuckled and attempted to move similarly while grinning. 

 

“yeah yeah you got it !!!”

 

They laughed as Honeydew showed Xephos small dance moves for him to copy. Honeydew enjoyed spending time with Xephos like this, embarrassing themselves by acting dumb together.   
Their laughter subsided, turning into yawns. 

 

“Maybe I’ll show you more fun stuff tomorrow. But for now…a snooze.”

 

“Good night.”

 

Honeydew slept, a smile on his face, content with the day. Hadn’t it been for the little dance session the only thing he could’ve said about today was that it had been tiresome work. He promised himself in his mind, to keep track of giving himself a small gift of happiness everyday, to not feel as bad about living such a tough life, with little food, a cold cave, and space shenanigans.  
Xephos looked around the cave for a second, then lied down to sleep as well. Another day had passed, another night stood before them. It had been 8 days since Xephos arrived.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I've been meaning to write this for years and years, but my limited english knowledge and internet knowledge back when I used to watch the Yogscast pretty much kept me from it.  
> Special thanks to @oldpeculier, @skylordlysander and @onehealer on tumblr for encouraging me to write! You're the best !!!! <3


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